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HONESTY 

A Study of the Causes and Treatment of Dishonesty 
Among Children 



By 
WILLIAM HEALY 

Director of the Psychopathic Institute, Juvenile Court, Chicago 
Author of The Individual Delinquent, etc. 



Childhood and Youth Series 

Edited by U^^' O'SHEA 
Professor of Education, The University of Wisconsin 



INDIANAPOLIS 

THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



Copyright 19 iS 
The Bobbs-Merrill Company 



<^'' 



PRCSS OF 

BRAUMWORTH & CO. 

BOOKBINDKR3 AND PRINTERS 

BROOkVYN, N. Y» 

:.-:■■ /^f. - 



<©CI,A414668 
NOV 19 1915 



EDITOR^S INTRODUCTION 

The author of this volume has had exceptional op- 
portunities to investigate the subjects discussed herein. 
As Director of the Juvenile Psychopathic Institute in 
Chicago for a number of years, he has dealt with 
many young people charged with dishonesty and 
brought before him for diagnosis and recommenda- 
tions. In his study of these cases, he has employed 
methods of examination which have enabled him to 
detect causes of misconduct that could not have been 
revealed by superficial observation, and especially not 
by the usual method of mere theorizing. Doctor 
Healy's position requires that he should serve as ad- 
viser to the Judge of the Juvenile Court of Chicago, 
which responsibility makes it imperative that he should 
attempt to discover and evaluate accurately all the cir- 
cumstances and backgrounds of the cases of delin- 
quency brought before him. In the same careful way 
he outlines methods of treatment which will be adapted 
to each individual offender. The present volume is 
the outgrowth of this first-hand experience in dealing 
with the causes and the cures of stealing. 

The reader of Honesty will observe in the first place 
that, contrary to the popular view, the factors which 
may lead a child to take what does not belong to him 
are often very subtle and complex. Unless this fact 
is appreciated, it will be impossible to protect children 
from developing the habit of stealing, or to cure them 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

when they have entered on a criminal career. Doctor 
Healy discusses these complex matters in non-technical 
terms which the layman, whether parent or teacher or 
social worker, can easily understand. He has adopted 
a method of presentation which will be of interest and 
service to the practical worker with children. He de- 
scribes typical cases of misconduct and its treatment 
as illustrated by the concrete examples of delinquents 
who have passed through his hands, and whose traits 
he gives in sufficient detail so that they can be under- 
stood by readers and used to classify and explain cases 
with which they may have to deal. 

The author has succeeded admirably in presenting 
scientific knowledge so that it can be utilized by those 
who are responsible for the care and culture of the 
young. The delinquency which is discussed in this 
volume gives parents and teachers a great deal of 
trouble, and will prove a serious handicap in later life 
to any child who becomes settled in it. This book 
in the hands of those who train the young should prove 
of great service in guarding against the first steps of 
dishonesty or in helping the child to retrace steps 
already taken on the wrong path. 

Madison, Wisconsin. M. V. O'Shea. 



PREFACE 

Our discussion of honesty and dishonesty in children 
is particularly addressed to parents and teachers. The 
field has been wisely delimited by the general editor, 
and in following his suggestion we shall neither deal 
with specifically criminal behavior and the material of 
law courts, nor shall we undertake to outline the sub- 
ject for those whose professional duty brings constant 
contact with delinquents. In this volume, rather, we 
are addressing people who meet the concrete fact of a 
certain form of misbehavior, namely dishonesty, in- 
cidentally to the general affairs of life. 

While we are confining ourselves to delinquency as 
known in the home or school, let none suppose that 
these early forms of misconduct have no connection 
with criminalism. On the contrary, a most significant 
fact on which I am always insisting is that when one 
traces back the careers of criminals they are practically 
always found to start in the delinquencies of child- 
hood. Treatment begun in this period when the in- 
dividual is flexible and habits of mind and character 
are not yet set — the value of which we wish ever to 
emphasize — is of vast importance in the light of the 
possible development of a delinquent career. 

The point of deoarture for us throughout, as the 
general editor at first stated, is properly the specific 
form of misconduct and what can be done about it. 
The teacher or parent is confronted by the fact of 



PREFACE 

stealing, truancy, lying or what not; their first and 
last considerations are those of therapy and preven- 
tion. Our main aim is to show in simple and non- 
technical phraseology what there may be in the back- 
ground of inner mental life or outward experience 
that has to be met in order that the individual prob- 
lem may be dealt with successfully. 

Our handling of delinquencies in categories, such as 
the subject of this present work indicates, does not 
;mean that we in the least agree to anything like the 
old ideas concerning treatment, expressed particularly 
in laws that provide for specific offenses being met by 
specific punishments, to say nothing of the immaturely 
considered legal refinements of this, when there is even 
discrimination between petty and grand offenses upon 
a basis of material values. We insist that our re- 
searches clearly show that given types of inner or 
outer causation may lead to any one of several de- 
linquencies, and that the first requisite of good treat- 
ment is to proceed from the misconduct back to the 
underlying cause. It is of the greatest moment for 
the protection of society as well as for the welfare of 
the misdoer that there should be accurate understand- 
ing of the real situation involved. 

Winnetka, Illinois. William Healy. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Introduction • . . 1 

Some general points of view — Adults fail to 
appreciate vital facts of childhood — Valuable 
to get appreciation of mental mechanisms — 
Essential to understand complexity of causes 
of misconduct — Superficial observation inade- 
quate — Practicability of deeper studies — The 
common method of repression weak — Parental . 
attitude of repression — Dangerous unconcern 
of parents — Possible making too much of the 
misconduct — The practical method of this vol- 
ume — General social measures for prevention • ,- 
of stealing omitted — Approach to the definite.* 
problem — Mental process always in the im- 
mediate background — Practical bearing of the 
mental background — Mental life being involved 
does not imply abnormality — Suggestion for 
practical use of this book. 

II Age of Moral Development 14 

Age of "moral awakening — Determinants of be- 
ginnings — Inculcating respect for property — 
Need of child for property — Innate qualities vs. 
experiences forming tendencies — Age periods 
of mor^l growth — Fact of youth alone insuf- 
ficientpeason — Treatment by ages. 

Ill Home Conditions and Parental Behavior . . 23 
The general problem — The only reasonable at- 
titude of parents — The immoral home — Lesser 
parental delinquencies — The shadow of poverty 
• — Conditions in the wake of poverty — Abnor- 



CONTENTS— Confmw^d 

CHAPTER PAGE 

mality of older persons in the famil}^— The 
case of Michael with a mentally defective 
mother — Lack of parental companionship and 
guidance — Statistics — Excuses given for paren- 
tal neglect — Home irritations productive of de- 
linquency — Lack of healthy home interests — 
Causes for lack of home interests — Specific 
constructive home influences. 

IV Companionship 37 

Social reactions — Particulars about companion- 
ship—Gangs in general — Types of gang thiev- 
ing — Age of organization — Case of a gang or- 
ganized for adventure — Treatment of adven- 
turesome gang spirit — The gang with secret so- 
cial life — Treatment of the social gang spirit — 
Gang with bond in bad habits — Treatment of 
case of bad habits in crowd — ^The neighbor- 
hood thieving crowd — Treatment of neighbor- 
hood thieving — Predatory habits of gangs — 
The strength of the crowd habit — Breaking up 
undesirable crowd connections — Social tempta- 
tions derived from school group — Rich older 
friends may be a danger — Temptations through 
association with richer companions — Handling 
the above type of case — Danger of companion- 
ship with delinquents — Parents and school peo- 
ple responsible for pernicious companionship. 

V Discipline 61 

Failure of discipline alone — Causations are not 
met by discipline — Efficacy of punishment — Dis- 
cipline as deterrent to unfortunate formation of 
habits — Values of discipline essentially psycho- 
logical — Forms of discipline — Dangers of de- 
ferred punishment— Short immediate punish- 



CONTElsiTS'-ConHnued 

RAFTER PAGE 

ment best — Later punishment should include 
restitution — Punishment for petty stealing from 
parents — Punishment versus prevention — Ne- 
cessity for individualization of punishment 

VI Amusement and Adventure 71 

Stealing in order to go to public entertainments 
— The habitual craving for exciting entertain- 
ments — Moving pictures influencing toward 
stealing — Case of stealing caused by craving 
for picture shows — Notions of stealing learned 
from the shows — Amusement parks incentives 
to stealing — Prevention of attendance by unac- 
companied children — ^Vacation schools for pre- 
vention — Adventurous amusement a cause of 
stealing — The crowd indirectly stimulating the 
spirit of adventure — Crowd spirit of adventure 
leading to stealing — Illustrative instance of 
crowd stealing — Change of character when in a 
crowd — Prevention demands realization of the 
possibilities — Provision for normal crowd ac- 
tivities — Extraordinary love of adventure — 
Craving for adventure is sometimes on a phys- 
ical basis — Craving for adventure may exist 
without over-development — The inner feelings 
back of the craving for adventure — Love of ad- 
venture not an abnormal trait — Special pro- 
visions for ardent natures — Stealing as an oc- 
cupation. 

VII Habits — Mental, Physical and Social ... 88 

Mechanics of habit — Forceful habit formation 
— Practical discussion of habits — Case of habit- 
ual ideation — Illustration : Habitual mental im- 
agery — Imagery from picture shows — Stealing a 
habit in itself — Use of alcohol — Bad sex habits 



COt^TE^TS— Continued 

CHAPTER fAGB 

— Treatment — ^Use of tobacco — Physical treat- 
ment — Social treatment — Use of drugs — Over- 
use of tea and coffee — Bad habits vs. efficiency 
of nervous system — Crowd habits — Some de- 
tails of social habits — Habitual idea of stealing 
from a certain shop — Habits developed in 
shops, etc., which children frequent. 

VIII Physical Conditions 112 

Conditions causing school dissatisfactions of 
the truant-thief — Over- and premature devel- 
opment — Physiological restlessness — Exclusion 
from the schoolroom — Psychophysical condi- 
tions — Physical conditions causing anti-social 
attitude — Case of the above type — Physical con- 
ditions that weaken will — Importance of treat- 
ment of physical conditions. 

IX Abnormal Mentality Correlated with Stealing 120 

Proportion of defectives among delinquents — 
Importance of environment of mental defect- 
ives — Need for definitions — Basis of definitions 
— Terminology — Definitions — Classification by 
tests — Causation of mental defect — Causation 
of delinquency in defectives — Are there moral 
defectives? — Why delinquency among defect- 
ives? — Mental habit among defectives — Special 
abilities of defectives — Peculiarities of stealing 
by defectives — Teaching of delinquency by de- 
fectives — Differences in moral tendencies 
among defectives — Causes of differences — 
Treatment of defectives for prevention of de- 
linquency — Importance of treatment of defect- 
ive delinquents — Physical ailments and bad hab- 
its of defectives — Need for segregation of de- 
fectives. 



CONTENTS^Continued 

CHAPTER PAGE 

X Abnormal Mentality — Continued ..... 144 

Children with special mental defects — Adjust- 
ment of cases with special mental defects — 
Children mentally dull from physical causes — 
Treatment of physical causes for mental dul- 
ness — Few children are insane — Insanity of 
adolescence — Stealing in border-line cases — ^The 
constitutional inferiors — Treatment of constitu- 
tional inferiority — The psychoneurotics — Out- 
look and treatment of psychoneurotics — Minor 
psychoses : Example, chorea — A case of chorea 
— Treatment of the choreic delinquent — Adoles- 
cent characteristics and instabilities — Adoles- 
cent instabilities leading to stealing — Treatment 
and outlook in cases of adolescent instability — 
Forms for treatment to take — Epilepsy and de- 
. linquency — BaMs of stealing by epileptics- 
Treatment of Ite epileptic delinquent — Basis 
for delinquent tendencies in aberrational indi- 
viduals. 

XI Impulsions and Obsessions 160 

Our exposition not technical — Facts, not meth- 
ods, given — Attitude of children in these cases 
=-Some children not introspective — Approach 
to problem — Advantages of early study- 
Youthful age of beginning— Characteristics cor- 
related with impulsions — Proof of this cause 
:— Both sexes involved — ^Understanding rather 
than disciplining — Psychological principles in- 
volved — Associational dynamics — Emotions at 
the core — Preventive treatment — Relation of 
sex experiences to stealing — Proper purveyors 
"^"^ of sex knowledge. 



CONTENTS— C(?Mfinw^d( 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XII Impulsions and Obsessions— Continued . •. ^. 179 

Differences caused by varieties of personality 
and environment — The Case of Celia — The 
Case of Enos — The Case of Agatha — Chronic 
stealing by adolescents — Self-knowledge of the 
trouble and penitence — Characteristics of the 
continued cases. 

XIII Impulsions and OBSESSioNS^-Concluded . . . 200 

Habit- formations, emotions, etc., back of im- 
pulsions — The sudden impulse to steal — The 
basis of it — Case of sudden impulses — ^Value of 
attacking the specifically responsible feature—* 
Constructive treatment through money allow- 
ance, etc.— Pleasurable excitement from the im- 
pulse to steal — Mental imagery causing impul- 
sions — Good pictures possibly counteractive — 
Nature of obsessions — Instances of obsessions 
about stealing — Relation of desires to obses- 
sions — Girl's impulses to take finery — Shop dis- 
plays causing impulse to steal — Necessity for 
study of impulsions — Importance of attitude of 
parents toward treatment — Treatment after the 
cause is discovered. 

Index ...... . > » > . y > -. 217 



HONESTY 



HONESTY 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTION 



yiD VANCE in methods of attacking the problems 
x\.of delinquency marks the present day. There 
is no more reason for supposing that we can not 
make great progress along this line of human en- 
deavor than for thinking that any social or scien- 
tific effort is limited by the achievements of the 
past. The accretions to knowledge of the most 
practical sort made through recent application of 
thorough methods in this field warrant us in looking 
steadfastly forward to great improvement in the 
understanding and treatment of misconduct in chil- 
dren. 

Some General Points of View. — Our aim in 
this work does not include criticism of the failures 
of the past, except as criticism may be based on 
accurately gathered data about the nature and needs 
of individual types of children and of causes of 
misconduct. Above all things, one need not deal 

1 



2 HONESTY 

here with generalities and theories; they are the 
weakness of formal systems of ethics and criminal 
science. But there are several general situations 
or points of view related to the problems of juvenile 
delinquency which may well be matters of earnest 
consideration by parents and teachers, who should 
be the first to observe the signs of the growth of 
delinquent tendencies. 

Adults Fail to Appreciate Vital Facts of Child- 
hood. — In the first place, it is quite obvious to 
the careful student of juvenile misconduct that the 
attitude of parents and other adults involved has 
its peculiarities and irrationalities. It seems that 
older people have grown too far beyond their mem- 
ories of the world of childhood, with its special 
limitations and view-points, to appreciate the mo- 
tivations and weaknesses of that period. The in- 
vestigator of what really happens, especially in the 
mental life of the child, comes on a whole host 
of phenomena which, as guiding forces of juvenile 
misconduct, are neither known to the guardians of 
the particular child nor to other observers. There 
is an astonishing lack of any attempt to get down 
to the bed-level of causation and analyze out the 
essential facts as they really exist, so important for 
treatment. We are willing to affirm that very 
rarely indeed does one find anything like adequate 
recognition of the real world of the child, wherein 
always grow the beginnings of character, likewise 
the beginnings of careers, good or bad. 



INTRODUCTION 3 

Valuable to Get Appreciation of Mental Mech- 
anisms. — To get appreciation of these funda- 
mental motives and forces, which mean so much 
for the conduct of life, I have often thought that 
it would be worth the while of any intelligent per- 
son to consider a single individual, perhaps himself, 
and gather together all the possible items of early 
mental life, and to refer them to their sources, and 
to note their finished product in developed charac- 
ter. Perhaps this procedure would be too difficult 
without instruction in the art of such character 
analysis. Perhaps, too, as we suggested above, 
the older person can not remember early formative 
conditions. But at least it requires no technical or 
special knowledge to perceive the general fact that 
in the mental life of any ordinary child there are 
ideas and emotions and mechanisms that are usually 
not even regarded as existent. 

Essential to Understand Complexity of Causes 
of Misconduct. — We warn that it is dangerous to 
seize on any one item discovered by analysis, and 
feel it alone was responsible for misconduct ; it may 
always be found that causative factors are not sin- 
gle. The canons of intellectual honesty demand 
that all the main possible sources of difficulty 
should be investigated; even though trouble in one 
direction is ascertained, this is no sign that else- 
where everything is right. In our own treatment 
of special types of individuals and causes in the 
following pages, we never mean to indicate that 



4 HONESTY 

one cause alone bears on the production of delin- 
quency: if impelling mental imagery is involved, so 
is paucity of healthy mental interests and unfor- 
tunate early experiences; if mental incapacity is at 
fault, so is environmental opportunity, and defec- 
tive parental guardianship. It should hardly be 
necessary to say that this complexity of causation 
is important in considering treatment; while a sat- 
is factory outcome may seem thereby to be rendered 
more difficult, in reality, through some one feature 
of the case, a promising avenue of approach may be 
opened up which otherwise would remain undis- 
covered. 

Superficial Observation Inadequate. — Really 
intensive study of one or more difficult cases of 
stealing by children can not fail to bring fair- 
minded acknowledgment from all of us that year- 
long observation of children by ordinary methods, 
in families or in school groups, may leave the ob- 
server with small conception of what often is dy- 
namic in the youthful mind. What we may actually 
find there, impelling to action, demonstrates the 
truth of the contentions of the modern masters of 
psychological analysis, who insist that there are 
many important mental activities and items of men- 
tal content of which the onlooker, and even the 
subject himself, knows little or nothing. The exist- 
ence of these underlying forces challenges consid- 
eration, while it suggests great possibilities in the 



INTRODUCTION 5 

way of better preventions and treatments that may 
come through better understandings. 

Practicability of Deeper Studies. — Any careful 
student of large experience with misdoers would 
call attention to the great variety and differences 
in causes, found through the scientific investigation 
of cases. One does not expect from a parent or 
guardian a detailed knowledge of these manifold 
conditions, but one may fairly ask for a greater ap- 
preciation of the fact that superficial observation sel- 
dom tells the story, and that there is urgent practical 
need for digging into the foundations of conduct. 
One feels justified in insisting that many of the 
beginnings of delinquency could be averted if only 
this appreciation existed and an effort was made 
to follow the lines of common-sense investigation. 
Indeed, it is to point out the practicability of more 
thorough attempts at understanding and treatment 
(always insisting, however, on the frequent neces- 
sity for special studies being made of the problem- 
child) that this volume is written. 

The Common Method of Repression Weak. — 
Quite in line with the above intimations of why 
failures arise in treatment of children's misconduct 
is another point : that concerning common methods 
of meeting misbehavior. "Thou shalt not,'' is the 
typical response that delinquency receives in the 
home, or the school, or the court. Indeed, we might 
shorten the phrase and assert that the customary 



6 HONESTY 

effort to check undesirable behavior is embodied in 
the single word, ''Don't." Thus to attempt to re- 
press the tendency to misconduct by mere admoni- 
tion (accompanied perhaps by punishment) savors 
strongly of the old drug therapy for illnesses — the 
symptoms, fever, etc., were then the objects of at- 
tention; the underlying pathology was not even 
suspected. Even theoretically we might expect fail- 
ure from similar methods applied to misdoers; 
practically, our daily experience uncovers clearly 
the dearth of results from such ill-considered en- 
deavors. 

Parental Attitude of Repression. — Parental re- 
pressions form the best example of the faulty 
method. The parent, the one whom we should ex- 
pect above all to know the ins and outs of the child's 
causes of misbehavior, often does just as badly as 
some impersonal agency, for instance, the law. The 
actual reaction of parents, as we observe it, ranges 
all the way between the following extremes: On 
the one hand, the child is merely told not to repeat 
the offense, and is expected to follow the warning. 
*T have told him not to do such things," is then 
the plea if there is further trouble. There is no 
parental idea of doing anything else about the mat- 
ter. At the opposite extreme is the case where the 
parent hales the young offender before the juvenile 
court, occasionally at the tender age of ten or twelve 
years (I have seen many such instances), and, 
stating that nothing can be done with the child, begs 



INTRODUCTION 7 

that a reform-school sentence be imposed. The 
dehnquent is said to disgrace the family, to be im- 
possible to control, to be a young criminal, to 
deserve nothing good. In any of these cases, in- 
cluding those at either extreme of the attitude to- 
ward punishment, there is not the slightest thought 
of causes and the constructive elements of treat- 
ment. 

Dangerous Unconcern of Parents. — ^Two other 
contrasted features of the attitude of guardians, 
both to be deplored, should be mentioned. (There is 
often met, as teachers well know, an unfortunate 
tendency on the part of parents to regard their 
children's delinquencies with lightness and uncon- 
cern. Among the many things we have learned in 
juvenile court work is that this light attitude, in 
which the young individual is mainly let alone to 
work out his own destiny, may result in the growth 
of distinctly criminalistic behavior)) This is true 
whether the parents' attitude arises from selfish and 
lazy pushing aside of the issue, or whether the in- 
difference is really due to the conviction that chil- 
dren's misconduct is a natural and temporary phase 
of their life, and that they will work themselves 
clear of it. ("I was wild when I was a boy and 
got over it. I guess it's all right; he'll do the 
same," is an expression we have heard many times.) 
The grave dangers of this let-alone principle are 
connoted by the discussion on most pages of this vol- 
ume — the reader can think them out for himself. 



8 HONESTY, 

Possible Making Too Much of the Miscon- 
duct. — An entirely opposite attitude of parents, 
encountered more seldom, is distinguished by too 
great concern and too much worry. Perhaps a 
single childish thieving expedition may be taken so 
hard that the advice of public authorities is sought 
and severe measures of retribution are considered. 
A v^oman, whose boy of eleven years had, under 
crowd influences, broken into some church building 
and stolen a few things, came with him in utter de- 
spair. He was a splendid little fellow who had fol- 
lowed out a gang-inspired idea of adventure. It was 
hard to persuade the mother that it was a very nor- 
mal impulse carried too far. She thought his deed 
must betoken a real spirit of evil active within him. 
She represented a type of parent whose over-concern, 
and perhaps harshness, should be combated. Such 
people forget, perhaps, their own youth or, at least, 
the childhood of others who have been, through the 
accident of a momentary impulse or of crowd-sug- 
gestion, heavily delinquent and who have turned 
out to be quite normal morally. Sound treatment 
does not require such over-concern nor the concep- 
tion of any evil spirit that rules children. 

The Practical Method of this Volume. — Our 
method of attacking the topic of dishonesty pro- 
ceeds from these considerations of general reasons 
for failure of treatment, to the specific facts of 
causation found by study of many hundreds of 



INTRODUCTION 9 

cases. We shall set forth, with much less attempt 
at formal arrangement than if we were writing a 
technical treatise, the various types of findings. 
While thus aiming at a practical presentation of 
the subject, for parents and teachers especially, the 
whole field has been outlined. By virtue of this it 
is to be hoped that the work will serve as a book of 
direct reference when a case of stealing is encoun- 
tered by home or school guardians of children. Va- 
rious issues will, of course, in particular cases have 
to be gone into much more thoroughly than is de- 
tailed here — ^professional advice will then often have 
to be sought. 

General Social Measures for Prevention of 
Stealing Omitted. — It should be obvious that it 
is not our business now to deal with general social 
measures that are concerned with the prevention of 
delinquency. But these are of such vital import 
for every community that we can not forego their 
mention. Undoubtedly the most socially econom- 
ical approach to the problem of stealing is through 
ascertaining in every city and town what the con- 
ditions are that peculiarly make for delinquency. 
No more important social survey can be contem- 
plated. (One can but be delighted to note that 
expert services are being used recently in this di- 
rection.) Then there are the fine efforts of or- 
ganizations built up along the lines of a juvenile 
protective association, in which there is attempt to 



10 HONESTY. 

work back from the delinquency of the child to the 
social conditions which are implicated and causative. 
I particularly commend both these types of effort. 

Approach to the Definite Problem. — Now, 
concerning the immediate approach to a case of 
dishonesty, when such arises: Common-sense 
viewing of the whole matter of treatment leads to 
appreciation of the fact that before treatment can 
be applied it must be known what there is in condi- 
tions or in the individual to be treated. Diagnosis 
comes before therapy. Knowledge of the etiology, 
or source of the trouble, is the first step. This re- 
quires such intimate acquaintance with the child as 
is only afforded by viewing him in the light of the 
known general causations for misconduct. Ob- 
serving the special traits of the young offender, 
knowledge of which may well lead to the applica- 
tion of special measures for his benefit, the endeavor 
should be to trace back to their beginnings, which 
may lie in several directions, the impulses which 
preceded the stealing. 

Mental Process Always in the Immediate 
Background. — There is no point of greater gen- 
eral value for the student of delinquency to keep 
firmly fixed than that all conduct, including mis- 
conduct, is the direct outcome of mental processes. 
This should be accepted as axiomatic. In its sim- 
plest or physiological terms conduct may be defined 
as motor response to orders received from cerebral 
centers. To be sure, not all action that may be 



INTRODUCTION 11 

called social behavior is consciously controlled from 
the brain. There are many cerebral and even men- 
tal activities that go on below the level of con- 
sciousness, but some sort of mental process directly 
originates and rules every bit of conduct. 

Practical Bearing of the Mental Background. 
— We are not here concerned with theoretical mat- 
ters, we simply bring up this important issue be- 
cause its validity is thoroughly demonstrable by 
the most practical considerations. It is clearly dis- 
cernible from our years of experience that the most 
economical method of procedure in the study of 
cases of delinquency is first to ask ourselves what 
kind of mind we have in the given misdoer, and 
what there is in this particular mind that causes 
the undesirable behavior-tendencies. Even let it be 
a case where environmental causative factors are 
paramount; we can best understand these through 
considering the mental activities that they have 
influenced or started going in unfortunate direc- 
tions. Not only is this method intrinsically im- 
portant for the scientific understanding of the case, 
but, also, one soon learns that the quickest way to 
alter the tendencies is through modifying the most 
immediate causal agency — and that is found always 
in the mental processes of the child. 

Mental Life Being Involved Does Not Imply 
Abnormality.' — It should be plain, even from the 
above remarks, that the author does not imply that 
delinquents are at all necessarily abnormal indi- 



12 HONESTY, 

viduals, or subject to pathological states of mind. 
He has hoped throughout not to bear too hard on 
the aberrant types who so readily do engage in 
stealing; most childish misconduct does not arise 
from such a cause. The insistence on the part which 
mental phenomena play in conduct involves, very 
largely, discussion of quite normal processes of 
mind. Even when treating of adolescence and its 
instabilities, as related to dishonesty, we have not 
wished to over-emphasize the characteristics of that 
period as being abnormal and not susceptible to 
transmutation through self-control and healthful 
activities. Above all, the standpoint of the theorist 
who views all misconduct as evidence of individual 
queerness, is to be avoided. 

Suggestion for Practical Use. — That this book 
may prove most serviceable, apart from the ordinary 
reading of it for information, we may offer the 
following suggestion : When brought face to face 
with an instance of dishonesty in a child — one of 
the commonest of delinquencies — ^the way to proceed 
rationally, that is diagnostically, is through obtain- 
ing an answer to all the main problems suggested 
in the separate chapters. And, we repeat, even if 
one source of trouble is discovered, there should be 
further seeking until all the main possible causes of 
stealing are ruled out. Is the child normal, defec- 
tive, or peculiar mentally; was the stealing done 
under the influence of companions; is there some 
particular mental content urging toward delin- 



INTRODUCTION 13 

quency; what, if any, are the weak points in home 
management or home interests, and so on? The 
chapter heads and the synopsis as given in the 
Table of Contents form a schedule by which can 
be covered all parts of the field of causation in- 
volved in the dishonesty of children. 



CHAPTER II 

AGE OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT 

MUCH has been said by certain students of the 
psychology of childhood concerning the re- 
semblance of the conduct of the young child to 
characteristics exhibited during primitive stages of 
the human race. We find no occasion whatever in 
our practical work for making much of the supposed 
likeness; at once we can relegate this conception of 
child behavior to the theoretical field where it be- 
longs. If we must philosophically pass upon the 
question of morality in young children the words 
of Sully may be used, ^'The first thing that strikes 
one in all such attempts to fix the moral world of 
the child is that they are judging of things by the 
wrong standards. The infant, though it has a na- 
ture capable of becoming moral or immoral, is not 
as yet a moral being; and there is a certain imper- 
tinence in trying to force it under our categories 
of good and bad, pure and corrupt." 

Age of Moral Awakening. — At what age chil- 
dren acquire the ideas of right and wrong and, as 
particularly applicable to our present discussion, 

14 



AGE OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT 15 

develop the distinction of meum et tuum is not to 
be fixed except in the terms of a range of years. 
The period in individual cases depends on innate 
mental abilities, on home teachings and discipline, 
and since so much of youthful mental development, 
as Royce insists, is due to imitation, the age greatly 
depends on the social life of the particular house- 
hold and community. This last point must be well 
taken into account in consideration of the age fac- 
tor in the development of moral traits. 

Determinants of Beginnings. — What goes on 
in his immediate entourage is of prime importance 
for initiating the child's conceptions of property 
rights. It is not a matter of poverty as compared 
with affluence — there are many other incidental con- 
ditions that make for the result. It is easy to 
appreciate that if, for instance, there is an unusual 
community of interests in the household, the Indi- 
vidual brought up under these circumstances may 
readily fail to perceive in the first years of general 
social intercourse what a stigma pertains to the ap- 
propriation of property away from home. Chil- 
dren in some families, including both rich and poor, 
as a matter of custom are allowed to help them- 
selves to whatever they please in the way of small 
things at home. We have learned that this ex- 
tends even to their being privileged to take money 
from the parental purse. Under such conditions 
it can not be expected that there should be shown 
early that respect for property rights that obtains 



16 HONESTX 

when there are sharp rules in the home circle about 
not interfering with the belongings of others. 

Inculcating Respect for Property. — In the 
light of the fact that a considerable amount of dis- 
honesty, especially during the years of childhood, 
originates simply through the lack of respect for 
the rights of others, we may be fairly asked how 
best the early notion of right and wrong in this 
particular can be inculcated. We unhesitatingly an- 
swer that it is to be accomplished, first and fore- 
most, by environmental example, and, if necessary, 
by well directed discipline. I shall never forget 
the case of the young man, an arrant thief, who 
analyzed out with me the beginnings of his own 
tendencies, and who, after sincere deliberation, 
could come to no other conclusion than that it all 
began with his early practise of taking money from 
his father's pockets. It seemed that his father, a 
typical ^'moderate drinker,'' was accustomed to come 
home from work too surly to give his wife a proper 
allowance, and her recourse was to have her little 
boy of six years get money from the paternal pock- 
ets after her husband had gone to sleep. This was 
the source of the boy's delinquent tendencies — at 
the age when he should have been building up his 
notions of property rights and forming the basis 
of what would later be called honesty he was often 
engaged in what strongly resembled stealing. His 
conception of his possibilities in life always included, 
from that time on, the chances for obtaining money 



AGE OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT 17 

and its equivalents by unfair means. If in the 
home life there is proper respect for the needs and 
possessions of husband, wife, brother and sister, a 
recognition of their rights, this forms the most ade- 
quate of all moral instruction concerning property. 
That it may be, and often is, necessary to add even 
to good example the force of sharp discipline in or- 
der that the sense of property rights may be awak- 
ened at the earliest moment goes without saying. 
But more often adoption of a reasoning and teach- 
ing attitude with the child offers better service to 
the desired end. 

Need of Child for Property. — ^We have been 
constantly struck in our practical experience with 
the fact that decided values appertain to letting even 
a very young child have things which belong to it- 
self alone. Beautiful as is the spirit of communal 
interest in the family life, it is entirely inadequate 
in meeting the desire for possession that is cer- 
tainly a part of every normal child's mental life. 
We are not here concerned with the general possi- 
bilities of mental development from experience with 
possessions, but only with the effect on generat- 
ing the idea of the rights of possession. I would 
argue that many of the general causes of dishonesty, 
such as poverty and avarice, have also their repre- 
sentation in the familiar conditions of early life. 
A child without individual possessions, whether in 
a poorly or a well supplied family, experiences pov- 
erty. He comxcs inevitably to desire things for his 



18 HONESTY 

own, to be jealous of those who have their own 
possessions, and is prone to think of how he may 
acquire such treasures. On the other hand, a child 
whose ideas of Hfe develop in connection with satis- 
factory and permanent, even though simple, posses- 
sions has much that affords soil for the growth of 
the best conceptions of property morality. In gen- 
eral, it may be said that the home, as well as the 
society, which permits individual poverty, is largely 
responsible for the tendency to dishonesty which 
may develop as an immediate or indirect reaction. 

Innate Qualities vs. Experiences Forming 
Tendencies. — We have every reason to empha- 
size the innate differences of individuals as explain- 
ing character variations, and yet I would be far 
from alleging that innate differences have more 
influence than such environmental conditions as we 
have just mentioned in the formation of character 
tendencies and so-called moral perceptions. Taking 
it altogether, we have every proof that environ- 
mental and disciplinary conditions influence greatly 
where innate and even inherited traits seem to 
stand out predominatingly as determinants of the 
age at which the young individual is to develop, if 
ever, the full sense of right and wrong. A case 
in point is the following: A boy of five was show- 
ing tendencies that alarmed his most excellent 
father and mother greatly. He was stealing from 
other places besides his own home, and was running 
away for half a day at a time. He had taken quite 



AGE OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT 19 

valuable objects under impulses which could not, of 
course, be well formulated by himself or others, 
but evidently they expressed a direct desire for ac- 
quisition. The question brought up by the parents 
was whether or not in this boy defects of inheri- 
tance were showing, for a certain male in his direct 
ancestral line had been a criminal. The boy was 
found mentally normal and with only slight physi- 
cal defects that could easily be remedied. The 
highly intelligent parents, though not well off, were 
capable of planning with us and carrying out a 
campaign which included setting a high standard 
of property rights within the household, giving to 
the youngster a sufficient supply of simple objects 
to allow him to develop his own world of posses- 
sions. Immediate discipline, too, was used to com- 
bat the invasion by the boy of the rights of others. 
In spite of the bad beginning, at the end of four 
years now there has long been a complete cessation 
of the youthful delinquency, although we know 
well that there might have been expected during 
this particular period a considerable further de- 
velopment of the tendency to misdoing. 

Age Periods of Moral Growth. — From consid- 
eration of the above several types of facts, we 
may rest assured that the age of onset of moral ap- 
perceptions can not be fixed or even approximated 
in any such sense as the processes of physical growth 
or the items of mental development are to be sched- 
uled. Of course, concerning the matter of appre- 



20 HONESTY 

elation of property rights, we can say that at three 
or four years one can expect but Httle perception 
and controlled conduct, and we can also say that at 
seven to ten years there should be sufficient develop- 
ment of apperceptions to form the basis of good be- 
havior in this respect. But even at this there is ever 
the possibility of great individual differences. To 
get at a general conception of moral age levels I 
have been interested to inquire from a kindergarten 
teacher of wide experience concerning the amount 
of stealing that goes on among children of the 
kindergarten age, in this instance averaging about 
five and one-half years. Taking a group of one hun- 
dred pupils in daily attendance, and coming mostly 
from two foreign nationalities which supply our 
courts with a large number of offenders, we learn 
that a case of theft in or about the schoolroom oc- 
curs on an average only about once a week. It 
must be remembered, too, that here the children 
come from the homes of poverty where there is 
neither a good supply of toys, nor much concern 
with ethical education, and that the kindergarten 
material would naturally be attractive as a childish 
possession. If we wanted to go by general figures, 
which is far from our purpose in this discussion, 
we might say then that already before six years 
there is usually to be found development of the idea 
of property rights adequate for simple social needs. 
A definite age of unmorality, which Goddard and 
some others have intimated might exist at about 



AGE OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT 21 

nine years, or its equivalent mental age in defectives, 
has not been substantiated by any large observations, 
and anyhow has no bearing on a possible earlier de- 
velopment of moral apperceptions. 

Fact of Youth Alone Insufficient Reason. — 
The upshot of any consideration of the youth ful- 
ness of the delinquent accounting sufficiently for 
his misdeeds is that we certainly can not fairly 
blame childish unmorality, the developmental lack 
of moral perceptions, unless we go back to ex- 
tremely early years when, as a matter of fact, no 
one is inclined to designate appropriation of prop- 
erty as stealing. To cite Sully again, we must be 
particularly careful in these youngest years not 
wrongly to interpret behavior. As he says, it will 
not do to say that children are born thieves because 
they show themselves at first serenely indifferent 
to property distinctions and are inclined to help 
themselves to other children's toys, etc. *Tor some 
time after birth the child is little more than an in- 
carnation of appetite which knows no restraint and 
only yields to the undermining force of satiety. 
The child's entrance into social life through a grow- 
ing consciousness of the existence of others is 
marked by much fierce opposition to their wishes." 

Treatment by Ages. — If the above be true, at- 
tempts at treatment in cases of stealing need not be 
hindered by the idea that they are useless because 
of the immaturity of the offender, except in cases 
of very young children and defectives who are 



22 HONESTY 

correspondingly intellectually youthful. In mental 
defectives, however, as we shall show in our chap- 
ter which deals with them, immaturity of certain 
intellectual abilities does not certainly connote cor- 
responding inability to grasp moral discriminations 
and to gain some satisfactory measure of social 
self-control. The treatment of delinquents, particu- 
larly on its constructive side, offers variant possi- 
bilities according to the age and the mental interest 
of the individual. What one can do in the way of 
prevention of stealing at one period of life is en- 
tirely different from what is possible at another 
time. What is actually feasible has to be studied 
out in the light of the individual's characteristics 
and the mental content and the environmental cir- 
cumstances, all of which differ, of course, from time 
to time in the individual, but which must not be 
approached from a preconceived standpoint of what 
interests properly belong to a child of twelve years, 
for instance. The experiences and native demands 
of children differ much more than their elders are 
apt to allow for, and particularly in this important 
matter, where individual characteristics stand out 
as nowhere else, there must be a diagnosis from all 
standpoints of each delinquent child. We feel this 
so strongly that we are loath to indicate any forms 
of treatment as belonging specifically to particular 
age groups. 



CHAPTER III 

HOME CONDITIONS AND PARENTAL BEHAVIOR 

WE HAVE every reason to be convinced that 
the strongest vantage point for attack on 
the whole field of delinquency or criminalism is in 
the home. General statements about this fact and 
wholesale blaming of parents are, however, of lit- 
tle avail. Careful studies of conditions and per- 
sonalities must often be enlisted to obtain proper 
appreciation of how the attack can be begtm. Some- 
times points obtained only through the diagnoses of 
specialists are necessary. But it certainly is through 
the home itself, in our country's type of civilization, 
that we can hope for the greatest warfare on de- 
linquent tendencies. 

The General Problem. — Men of the broadest 
practical experience with juvenile delinquency, par- 
ticularly juvenile court judges, have been most em- 
phatic in attributing a great preponderance of the 
delinquency of children to parental neglect. How- 
ever, this is a position very easy to take because the 
guardianship of the child rests on the parents, (nat- 
urally, and whatever the child does or does not do 
may be said to be largely the result of good or faulty 

23 



24 HONESTY 

guardianship.', If the children do well the parents 
set them in the way of doing well; if they do ill the 
parents have neglected to keep close enough watch 
on them, or have been too severe. We ourselves 
see clearly all sorts of parental incompetencies and 
neglects. But we are forced to ask, in turn, whence 
arose the parental inadequacies, and more than any- 
thing else we are obliged to concern ourselves with 
debating what can be done about it. Sometimes 
family circumstances can be rehabilitated, or 
changed in radical ways from what they were before, 
but sometimes there are innate difficulties in the pa- 
rental mental make-up that are quite unalterable. I 
am not sure we need concern ourselves much here 
with this latter type of parents; the only way to 
reach them is through social action. In the course 
of this chapter, written largely for parents who are 
willing to face understandingly the problem of 
stealing in children, many of the responsible family 
conditions will be made manifest. These points, too, 
can be utilized for study and diagnosis of the spe- 
cial case by teachers and social workers, who may 
have the power of getting family conditions im- 
proved, even where there is no initiative within the 
home circle. 

The Only Reasonable Attitude of Parents. — 
When considering a case of dishonesty on the part 
of a child the only reasonable and practical attitude 
for a parent to take is through asking the following 
question: As guardian and natural director of the 



HOME CONDITIONS 25 

living conditions of this child in what way am I, or 
have I been, a contributing agent to the delinquency ? 
It is playing a weak part to throw up one's hands in 
holy horror, insisting that any parental participa- 
tion in causation of the delinquency is quite beyond 
the bounds of possibility. The whole problem has 
many negative as well as positive aspects, and it is 
the guardians' sins of omission as well as commis- 
sion which may be involved. As our judges so fre- 
quently observe, parents should have maintained 
themselves in the position of knowing the facts 
about the development of the delinquent trend of 
their child. In other cases the trouble has gone on 
with the direct knowledge of the parents who have 
proved themselves incompetent or unwilling to alter 
the situation. Now, we are not at all concerned 
here with the matter of blame; we merely ask for 
earnest consideration of the possibilities and re- 
sponsibilities of parental action. The plainest way 
for us to put the problem, and for parents to put it 
to themselves, is in the following statement: The 
best approach to delinquency is by discovering its 
causes, and for this one of the most important con- 
siderations is understanding the part that home con- 
ditions and parental guardianship play in its 
production. 

The Immoral Home. — We need spend little 
time in discussing the actually immoral home as pro- 
ducing a thieving child. Cause and effect are then 
so obvious that they hardly need mention. In many 



26 HONESTY 

of our cases we have learned that the home of the 
steahng child contained some older person who was 
addicted to vicious or even criminal habits. Here 
was John, for instance, a little boy of twelve, who 
was already notorious in his neighborhood for 
stealing. He was an active and bright little fellow. 
Home control was worse than nil on account of the 
father's being a man of criminal tendencies, alco- 
holic and a wife-beater. In this, instance we had 
proof of the fact, for when this boy, about whom 
we could give a favorable prognosis on account of 
good native ability, was removed to a good country 
home he entirely ceased his transgressions. Or we 
might take the case of another lad, Harry, who was 
not even eight years old when we first saw him, as 
a little boy who had been stealing frequently for a 
year or two. On the mother's side this child came 
from excessively bad stock; the mother herself was 
separated from the father and was leading an im- 
moral life. She had been coming to her former 
husband's good home and begging the boy to break 
away and to come with her. Such a case is fright- 
ful in its possibilities and there are all sorts of va- 
riations in this type of family background. 

Another boy of eight years, who was a neighbor- 
hood pest on account of stealing and other delin- 
quencies, was the victim of home conditions in the 
following way: The father was a railroad man. 
He was away from home much, and, moreover, he 
was of a careless type. The mother suffered from 



HOME CONDITIONS 27 

a chronic ailment and in following a therapeutic 
error partook largely of an alcoholic medicine, 
which together wuth her disease made her absolutely 
careless about her children. But after her death 
this boy was brought up from the lowest depths into 
decent living under the conditions of better environ- 
ments away from his family. All such cases are 
obvious in their import. Thieving, immorality and 
drunkenness in the home are almost bound to result 
in the delinquency of any child unfortunate enough 
to live there. School people should be the social 
workers to perceive these living conditions, and one 
of the greatest hopes of the future is that through 
the agency of the schools there shall be adequate 
recognition of those facts which society should deal 
with by way of prevention at the earliest possible 
moment. 

Lesser Parental Delinquencies. — More subtle 
is the effect of smaller delinquencies on the part of 
parents. These, too, through the force of example, 
may be directly creative of such unfortunate tenden- 
cies as are expressed in the child's stealing. I mean 
that where parents are careless about their social 
responsibilities concerning property rights the effect 
may be the production of a like attitude on the part 
of the child. Parents who borrow articles or money 
without repayment, who accept presents they know 
are not honestly obtained, who do not pay their bills, 
who are engaged in business which is permeated 
with graft or bribery, are in a fair way to produce 



28 HONESTY. 

a lack of respect for the rights of others on the part 
of their children, which may show itself by stealing. 
Of course, the young child is not apt to know much 
about the tricks of business, but it does early know 
about things received in the family circle which are 
never paid for. In adolescence, when there is an 
awakening of apperception of the social order, and 
enlargement of experiences, it is only natural that 
there should be greater appreciation of parents' de- 
linquencies, and possible imitation of their type of 
behavior. No doubt the petty delinquencies of par- 
ents sometimes represent a neighborhood spirit — 
parents themselves may be subject to the influence 
of social suggestion, as well as their children. We 
have spoken of this under the head of companion- 
ship. We have known of districts where it was 
shown that practically all, both adults and children, 
had developed great carelessness about preying 
upon the neighboring property of some large cor- 
poration. 

The Shadov7 of Poverty. — Where the home 
conditions are overshadowed by dire poverty, the 
situation is so obvious in its possible relation to 
stealing, that it needs no discussion. With us in 
America, poverty as a factor in stealing is not nearly 
so frequently found as in the older communities of 
Europe. But, even so, we have enough of it, 
whether through incompetency or fault of the par- 
ents, or through misfortune, sickness and death. 



HOME CONDITIONS 29 

We find the actual facts varying all the way from 
a case where a child is so unfortunate that it has no 
home at all, and perhaps no parents, or where 
drunkenness and criminalism make home conditions 
just as bad, to some instance where a widow is strug- 
gling along and working out every day and forced 
by circumstances to be neglectful of the better in- 
terests of her children. 

Conditions in the Wake of Poverty. — In the 
wake of poverty lie many reasons for the develop- 
ment of a trend toward dishonesty. However, one 
really finds poverty a factor much less frequently 
than at first sight one would suppose. The children 
from a poor home may suffer from any one of the 
following conditions, which seem to be the main 
ones correlated with stealing. There may be actual 
want of food, or need for kinds of food that are 
not obtainable. The same may be true of clothes. 
There is apt to be very little to form healthy mental 
interests in the home surroundings, few toys, few 
books, few materials for occupations. The result 
of this is that other allurements are sought, or that 
city streets prove attractive, and the temptations of 
these lead to stealing for the sake of satisfying de- 
sires. Poverty may prevent normal control and 
companionship, and even discipline. This is partic- 
ularly true in the case of half -orphans, or where the 
household has been deserted by either parent, and 
the remaining one is solely responsible for mainte- 



30 HONESTY 

nance and guardianship. Under such circumstances 
poverty stands out as one of the most important of 
family conditions making for delinquency. 

Abnormality of Older Persons in the Family. — 
We would hardly think it necessary to speak of the 
mental abnormality of an older person in the family 
as causative of stealing had we not so frequently 
come on this fact. The effect may be through home 
irritation, which causes the child early to seek street 
companions, or it may be that the parent or other 
person in the home who is feeble-minded, or epi- 
leptic, or mildly insane, has the abnormal moral 
standards that frequently go with such mental 
troubles, and has introduced the child to a similar 
view of life. If a delinquent is found in a fam- 
ily where there is a mental defective or aberra- 
tional parent, we are prone to draw the conclusion 
that it is heredity that is at fault, but the truth 
may be that it is simply home conditions. Mental 
normality is a prime requisite for the proper train- 
ing of a child. It is socially dangerous to allow a 
child to be brought up at all under the guidance of a 
person mentally abnormal. The sooner society rec- 
ognizes this fact the better it will be. In hundreds 
of cases the relation of juvenile dishonesty can be 
traced to such incompetent up-bringing. 

The Case of Michael with a Mentally Defective 
Mother. — Here is the case of Michael, ten years 
old, illustrative of the above fact. He steals eatables 
and small sums whenever he can. He proved nor- 



HOME CONDITIONS 31 

mal by mental tests and there is nothing physically 
the matter with him. His older brother has already 
been in the juvenile court. Now Michael has a 
fairly good father, a laboring man, who makes 
enough for the family easily to be honest if home 
affairs are well managed. His wife is a high 
grade feeble-minded woman, who makes a fair pres- 
entation of herself, but who can not economically 
manage affairs and who is unconcerned about the 
petty delinquencies of her children. It would be too 
much to say that she tells them to steal, but their 
escapades in this direction are matters for merri- 
ment and not for discipline with her. Outside of 
the whole question of inheritance, we have this 
problem of the home conditions arising under the 
management of mildly insane, feeble-minded, or 
otherwise socially incompetent parents. 

Lack of Parental Companionship and Guid- 
ance. — The lack of parental companionship and 
guidance is to be noted as one of the main causes of 
juvenile delinquency in all classes of society. No 
amount of other explanation of delinquency can 
minimize this general fact. The responsibilities 
and possibilities of parental guardianship demand 
earnest consideration by all who observe individual 
cases of such social offenses as stealing. Of course it 
is obvious that practically all stealing by children oc- 
curs apart from the oversight of parents, and that 
if parents had more complete supervision such delin- 
quency would not have been engaged in. In very 



<^/ 



32 HONESTY. 

many cases we have seen this point come out so 
strongly that I should heartily recommend every 
parent and guardian, for the understanding of both 
cause and treatment, primarily to consider his pos- 
sible omission of supervision. 

Statistics. — Our statement of the importance 
of this type of fact may be backed up by statistics, 
on what has resulted through the circumstances of 
broken up families, through death and separation. 
Going over our juvenile court material of one thou- 
sand young repeated offenders, averaging fifteen 
and one-half years of age, we find that in no less 
than fifty per cent, of the cases the natural parental 
Yy relationships were incomplete. Moreover, added to 
this there were many other instances in which there 
had been just as little parental supervision as if the 
parents were dead or living apart. What parental 
absence or parental neglect of companionship means 
for the child may be indicated as follows : there will 
be lack of parental discipline, the opportunity for 
cultivating bad companionship, failure of recrea- 
tional opportunities, the possible development of 
many forms of bad mental content through hearing 
and seeing improper things and through improper 
I reading. In other words, both the negative and pos- 
'litive phases of a child's mental life and conduct are 
imperiled without parental care. 

Excuses Given for Parental Neglect. — AH 
sorts of excuses will be offered by parents and 
guardians — these range from the "social duties" of 



HOME CONDITIONS 33 

mothers to the business cares and ostensible needs 
for fraternizing with other men on the part of the 
fathers. The vahdity of such excuses we do not 
propose to criticize, but, whether we do or not, the 
results stand out very plainly. Parents who neglect 
the confidences and companionships and oversights 
which are necessary to the moral well-being of the 
child, are themselves very definite contributors to 
delinquency. In law it might be hard to prove this 
point except in the rare cases where neglect is a so- 
cial scandal, but in any true order of things, and as 
a real moral issue, the fact stands clear. 

Home Irritations Productive o£ Delinquency. 
— As an indirect cause, even of dishonesty, we have 
so frequently heard from children the facts about 
bickerings at home, and later have had them corrob- 
orated, that in our enumerated list of factors we 
find such home irritations frequently appearing. It 
stands to reason that even with young children, 
where there is an excessive amount of scolding and 
nagging, to say nothing of brawling, at home, the 
reaction may be anti-social. Then the child often 
seeks secret companionship and through unfortu- 
nate alliances may get to stealing. It is said that ? 
life on the streets in a city is a cause of stealing, 
but we, in turn, would ask what induces the childt ^D 
to seek street life. In answer to this we not infre- 
quently run against the fact of home altercations. 
Although it is hardly our business here to go so far, 
we might inquire then about the backgrounds of 



34 HONESTY 

such parental conduct. Our answer might be pov- 
erty, overwork, drinking, even of the moderate va- 
riety such as we have mentioned elsewhere, mental 
and physical disabilities of members of the house- 
hold, and so on. (Alcoholism of parents is, with- 
out doubt, one of the biggest contributing causes for 
the delinquency of children. Leaving out moderate 
1 drinking — itself frequently a cause of home irri- 
/ tation — we found that in the cases of one thousand 
I young delinquents who repeated their offenses, no 
' less than three hundred and eleven had at least one 
alcoholic parent.) But from whatever cause they 
may arise, the fact as it applies to the child is that 
home irritations are prone to produce anti-social 
conduct. Whenever this is possible, one of the 
most immediate methods of altering the conduct is 
to have the fact of home irritation understood by 
the natural guardians of the child. In some in- 
stances other children in the building, or other mem- 
bers of the family, are the cause of the trouble, 
while sometimes it is special traits of the offender 
himself that bring about the irritation. Unfortu- 
nate reactions between two individuals, even be- 
tween mother and child, may be the result of 
qualities in each that grate on the other; then the 
blame is not all on one side. 

Lack of Healthy Home Interests. — Of all the 
factors of delinquency centering about the home 
none is so important as the lack of healthy interests 
which should be fostered there. Discussion of this 



HOME CONDITIONS 35 

subject might lead us into various subtleties that 
include deep-going psychological considerations. 
These, however, we can here avoid. It is plain that 
the bulk of what we have said previously about im- 
morality, poverty, lack of parental companionship 
and so ort could come under the present heading, 
for many of the results of these outstanding condi- 
tions are to be found in the effect on youthful 
mentality and youthful interests. The same, of 
course, might be said of the cause for seeking bad 
companionship; in by far the most cases of the lat- 
ter the home has afforded nothing that could be the 
least calculated to offset the attractions of such 
companionship. 

Causes for Lack of Home Interests. — It is im- 
portant to note that the lack of healthy mental inter- 
ests at home is not absolutely correlated with pov- 
erty and the bad character of a parent. On the 
contrary, even many well-meaning people who per- 
haps maintain most orderly homes, either through 
ignorance or lack of inclination, fail to make any 
specific effort toward keeping up their home as a 
center for real development of the children. It 
would be impossible here even to sketch the many 
details of home life that should be directed to- 
ward character building. Perhaps the main point to 
make is that the home circle should be the greatest 
source of information and development of satisfy- 
ing interests at all stages of the child's life. The 
idea that in the schoolroom the most important 



36 HONESTY 

things of life are learned is quite erroneous. School 
information is superficial compared to the realities 
of social behavior and character that are taught first 
under the parental roof. 

Emphasizing once more the bearing that mental 
emptiness has on the production of delinquent tend- 
encies, one might insist that the child misbehaving 
himself outside the home has not the right sort of 
) things with which to occupy himself, and therefore 
\ he takes up with socially abnormal types of action. 
Specific Constructive Home Infliuences. — It 
may thus come back to a question of play and of 
toys and of chances to make things and to have pos- 
sessions; the absence of interesting competitive 
games, or chances to develop bodily skill may be 
blamed; or there may be lack of such direct devel- 
opment of mental interests as is fostered by good 
conversation and the type of reading that fills the 
mind with fine imagery. Of the direct develop- 
ment of ethical impulses in the home, whether de- 
rived from specific religious or other instruction, 
we need say nothing, because the part that it should 
play is altogether obvious. In summary one need 
only state that in debating how to check a beginning 
tendency toward stealing, a matter to be carefully 
weighed is the development of the commanding 
interests of the individual. And these are to be 
most satisfactorily formed, whenever possible, 
through home influences. 



CHAPTER IV 



COMPANIONSHIP 



ONE of the most important considerations in 
any good approach to the problems presented 
by a case of dishonesty is whether or not the dehn- j 
quency was committed in connection with compan- j 
ions. Often the step most necessary for prevention 
of further misdemeanor will follow on ascertain- 
ment of the culpable influence of others. There 
has been much prominence given in literature to 
the subject of crowd influences, ranging from the 
Augustinian Confessions of thieving to the por- 
trayal of New York gangs by Jacob Riis. We 
would not deny that the same type of cause may 
be active sometimes when there is companionship 
in thieving as when stealing is done alone, but often 
altogether unlike elements are involved and the 
treatment should be in accordance with these differ- 
ences. 

Social Reactions. — While in this chapter we 
are concerned merely with quite normal types of 
children it must be clearly understood from the first 
that there are some individuals who are abnor- 
mally suggestible from a social standpoint, even 

37 



38 honesty; 

though they are not discovered to be defective or er- 
ratic in any other mental quality. Then, as we have 
elsewhere said* in elaborating the facts, there are 
differences in suggestibility according to age peri- V 
ods, and also marked variations between individuals 
of the same age. Knowledge of these character 
peculiarities in the person, is an essential for cor- 
rect estimation of the possibilities of treatment. A 
thorough individual diagnosis is only to be made 
by those who have special knowledge of the related 
subject, but important indications of general char- 
acter tendencies can often be obtained from the so- 
cial reactions of the individual concerned. 

Particulars About Companionship. — If in trac- 
ing back the tendencies to offense one finds that 
companions are implicated, then the next step must 
be to ascertain the particulars of this companion- 
ship. Very different considerations may be in- 
volved, for instance, when a large gang is respon- 
sible than when only two or three companions have 
entered into the delinquent behavior together. Spe- 
cial points also arise when the association is be- 
tween an adult or a much older youth and the child \ 
in question, or when two sexes are represented. 
Still more important it is to know what bands to-^ 
gether these individuals, on what their fraternity 
is based. The overt fact of companionship by no 
means discloses the true inwardness of the situation, 



* William Healy. The Individual Delinquent, p. 695. Little, 
Brown & Co., Boston, 1915. 



COMPANIONSHIP 39 

and it is the deeper and more important facts that 
should always be ascertained in order to place the 
offender on the road to change his ways. The sig- 
nificance of these points will be made clear through 
review of typical cases. 

Gangs in General. — Any careful observer of 
human conduct knows that behavior tendencies of 
crowds vary greatly from conduct exhibited by the 
separate unit individuals .when alone. This is the 
central idea of studies of crowd psychology. We 
confess to a feeling that as far as children are con- 
cerned ther^ has been some overdoing of the idea 
that gang activities represent the main natural in- 
terests of life during several years, and particularly 
have we observed that a great deal of delinquency 
among children occurs quite apart from the influ- 
ence of any organized crowd. But nevertheless 
such organizations are common, and through their 
development of special conditions of mental excite- 
ment leading to a peculiar, lawless mob spirit, they 
do often give rise to delinquency. Making due al- 
lowance then for many other kinds and causes of 
stealing, we should recommend those who care to go 
further into the inquiry about children's crowds to 
consult the facts and references given in Stanley 
Hall's Adolescence, But, here again, social gener- 
alizations qre not what we are after; it is the con- 
crete fact of dishonesty in the special case that is our 
business, and the possibility of treatment of the indi- 
vidual who has committed the offense. 



\ 



40 honesty; 

Types of Gang Thieving. — It is all very well to 
say that here is an individual who is a member of 
3. gang; he steals, his companions steal, and it is 
merely because they are members of the gang. This 
to the psychologist ought not to be sufficiently ex- 
planatory; while for the social therapeutist the 
bare fact leads frequently to no satisfactory recom- 
mendation. We find that crowds are held together by 
widely differing bonds, and one has to look beneath 
the surface to ascertain their character. Even when 
the uniting force, for instance, seems to be the typi- 
cal spirit of adventure of which many writers have 
made so much, there may be secrets in the back- 
ground that are anything but what one had sup- 
posed. The same is true about the association of 
two or more youngsters who incite each other to 
delinquency. The exposition of cases will serve to 
make the matter clear and to show the absolute 
necessity there is for digging deeply when attempt- 
ing to uproot delinquent tendencies developed even 
under such clearly seen conditions as gang activities. 

Age of Organization. — As Stanley Hall and 
Sheldon point out, one may rightfully think of the 
gang spirit as an age phenomenon. However, one 
would not care to dogmatize on the point because 
of the greatly varying environmental conditions and 
also because of the differing physical and mental 
abilities of individual children. While it is true, as 
Sheldon says, that predatory organizations are 
strongest among children of eleven to fifteen years 



COMPANIONSHIP 41 

of age, yet we have met very clever young thieves 
who have been taken into a gang before that age. 
Of course these organizations in city Hfe also hang 
together much later than after the fifteenth year. If 
there are leaders in an organization who are willing 
to take the trouble of dealing with younger chil- 
dren, or when especially promising recruits among 
children even as young as eight or ten years are dis- 
covered, the youngsters may be received in the gang, 
but practically never before that age. There is a 
strong tendency to disband in later adolescence, so 
that the gang spirit undoubtedly does reach its maxi- 
mum intensity somewhere about fourteen or fifteen 
years. 

Case of a Gang Organized for Adventure. — 
The following case illustrates, as well as any I know, 
the compelling spirit of adventure that may be 
created in a gang when possibly no one member of 
it possesses the spirit in unusual degree. We studied 
the case of an unusually bright and intelligent look- 
ing boy of eleven, with a finely m.odeled head and 
captivating manners. He is the son of Slavic immi- 
grants, the mother being a gentle and refined crea- 
ture, and the father a drunken brute, who, after a 
few years in this country, deserted his wife. The 
boy had a splendid record in school and was liked 
everywhere. Of course he had very few posses- 
sions in his own poor home. He and a number of 
neighboring boys feasted themselves on cheap books 
of adventure, and also, visually, on the guns and 



42 HONESTY 

other articles exhibited in the windows of a sporting 
goods estabhshment in the manufacturing town 
where they Hved. Of the two influences I question 
whether this shop window was not the stronger. 
The crowd of six or seven boys essayed several little 
adventures together on the sand dunes, and finally 
a much larger escapade was planned. We have yet 
to know how much the others were directly impli- 
cated in a burglary that was committed, since our 
little boy always demonstrated his spirit of loyalty 
to the crowd and did not tell, but at last he himself 
entered the sporting goods store at night and stole 
a valuable lot of goods for them. Guns, cartridges 
and appurtenances were buried, and with some of 
the money taken they provisioned themselves for 
their expedition. Nobody dreamed that the burglary 
could have been committed by such a small and in- 
nocent looking boy, and no suspicion fell on any 
of his crowd until they had been out on their trav- 
els for a couple of days and had shot through the 
windows of a sportsman's club, miles away from 
their homes. When apprehended for this they had 
offered in true sportsman-like fashion to pay for 
the damage. After the police had the affair in hand, 
confession was freely made by our boy, who took 
the entire blame on himself. It was very difficult 
to know what to do about this case ; for a time the 
boy was tried in the old neighborhood, but it soon 
became evident that he could not succeed there, after 
having given himself such an extraordinary repu- 



COMPANIONSHIP 43 

tation and being looked up to by the other boys as 
a sort of hero. He had to be sent to an institu- 
tional school. 

Treatment of Adventuresome Gang Spirit. — 
The treatment of this type of case demands both 
repressive and constructive measures. The mother 
of our boy was too poor to do much about it, and 
although she had long seen the danger, she said, 
of his going with the little band of adventurers, yet 
she could not afford him any legitimate forms of 
counteractivities. The head of the school that he 
attended had also seen the problem and anticipated 
trouble, but nothing could be offered from that side, 
for it was the typical educational plant with no pro- 
vision made for activities out-of-doors, or for fur- 
thering healthful forms of recreation. There is 
very little effect to be expected from admonishment 
and attempted repression in such instances. On the 
other hand, this type of case presents a fair field for 
developing substitutive activities. 

The Gang with Secret Social Life. — Markedly 
different from the above in its practical aspects is 
the delinquency originating from gang life where 
the bond of union is merely social existence in se- 
cret. Typical of this is the case of a boy of four- 
teen whom we studied. It was peculiarly interest- 
ing because the parents of this lad recognized the 
bare fact of his trouble being caused by crowd asso- 
ciations, and had moved miles away into the out- 
skirts of the city to remove liim from this bad 



44 HONESTY 

influence. They had repeatedly warned him and 
punished him, but had never thought of inquiring 
into the real nature of the crowd's hold on him. It 
was another case where the parents' "don't" was 
entirely inadequate. They knew that he had been 
• engaged in some petty stealing prior to their mov- 
ing away, but after this he took some money from 
home, and to their great sorrow, disappeared for a 
week or so, A month or two later he ran away a 
second time. This boy's associations, at the time 
of our study of him, were traced by a skilled social 
worker, and it was found that his crowd met in a 
huge, old-fashioned tenement building. After a 
little it was discovered that they had in the base- 
ment a secret room where much smoking and read- 
ing of cheap novels went on. Their life was that 
of a jolly crowd of buccaneers, provisioned and 
armed. They were quite willing to spend their 
money for the common weal, but of course they 
often ran out of financial resources, and their sup- 
plies were then replenished by petty thieving. They 
were not banded together for the direct purpose of 
thievery, nor did they appear to indulge in any ex- 
tremely bad habits of any kind. They were held 
by the mere fact that they had a secret organization 
and a secret home for their society, and that while 
together they enjoyed democracy and independence. 
Treatment of the Social Gang Spirit. — If steal- 
C ing arises, as in the above case, as incidental to crowd 
(^necessities, the real underlying conditions must be 



COMPANIONSHIP 45 

first ascertained in order that the dehnquency be 
squarely met. The need for social life itself must 
be taken care of either by getting something better 
for the whole crowd to do or else by turning the 
particular individual toward new phases of social 
life. We know of one most interesting instance 
where a healthy-minded social worker became initia- 
ted as a loyal member of such a secret society, which 
had even more elaborate paraphernalia than the one 
we have described, and who succeeded after a time 
in entirely altering the activities of the whole organ- , 
ization. This was brought about by the introduc- i' 
tion of a better class of reading, not of course on 
the namby-pamby order, but books of really entic- 
ing adventure, far more attractive than the cheap 
books the crowd had been reading, and by the devel- 
opment of the spirit of self-interest through gradu- 
ally teaching them what bad air and constant smok- 
ing meant for them. It would be useless to expect 
one boy to stand out against a crowd of his fellows 
in the attempt to get a bettered state of affairs 
among them, so if no alteration of their collective 
activities can be made, the only hope is to arouse 
new interests in the boy to keep him away from the 
gang — this can be done best in connection with re- 
moval from the neighborhood. Indeed, when con- 
sidering at all this matter of stealing which arises 
from gang influences, one of the chief points to 
remember is that the measure of greatest safety is 
.in change of environmental conditions, particularly 



.46 honesty; 

by removal or sending the boy away so that he be 
not taunted or accused of the most dastardly of 
crimes in the annals of youth, namely, disloyalty ] 
and quitting. Very many times after study of a 
case in consultation with parents, we felt that the 
only safeguard for the boy was complete removal A 
from the old sphere of activities. 

Gang with Bond in Bad Habits. — Some cases 
of stealing found most difficult to handle by even 
intelligent parents and teachers show development 
of tendencies through the influence of associates 
who have clubbed together on the basis of some 
mutual understanding that was not in the least sur- 
mised by the observers. An example is the follow- 
ing: A boy of thirteen, endowed above the average, 
both mentally and physically, who had stood well 
in his school until a year or so previously, had been 
creating for his well-to-do parents an immense 
amount of trouble. They had tried to do much for 
him ; the father had even taken him away on hunt- 
ing trips, but there was frequently recurring trouble 
in the home town. The boy many times had stolen 
from home and repeatedly from shops. On several 
occasions he had stayed away over night. His fam- 
ily knew he was going with a crowd of which they 
did not approve, and felt that he was probably sup- 
plying them with money and other things he had 
taken. They managed to keep him away from 
these companions for short periods; always, how-^ 
ever, in spite of punishments and promises he re- 



COMPANIONSHIP 47; 

turned to them. The parents supposed that the 
bond of interest was the spirit of adventure, because 
the boys assembled in a hut in the woods or stayed 
at times in an empty box car. Apparently there 
were no excessively bad habits, and the only delin- 
quency known was the stealing. After long trying to 
alter the situation, these most excellent parents felt 
their helplessness. An analysis of the situation un- 
dertaken by us with the boy soon showed that he 
had been keeping to himself the fact that the crowd 
met together largely on the basis of secret knowl- 
edge. They had gradually initiated one another into 
the mysteries of sex life and, while they did not 
ostensibly gather for this, at their meeting places 
they spent much time in discussing these things, and 
sometimes mutually engaging in bad sex habits. 
Jhis is only one of a long series of such instances 
that I have known. 

Here we have the delinquent act, stealing; back \ 
of this the gang; the union of the crowd being / 
based on secret communications and secret practises. / 
Without knowledge of the three main links of suchi 
a chain very little in the way of successful treats/ 
ment can be afforded. In several instances I have 
known that a very great deal has been done for the 
individual, but as long as the real source of the bad 
conduct was not discovered and checked there was a 
constant tendency for it to show itself. Now, the 
definite treatment of such a case involves thorough 
exploration of the essential nature of the back- 



48 HONESTY, 

ground, and a fair meeting of the situation by the 
parents or other guardians. To gloss the matter 
over and let a professional consultant be the only 
one who attempts guidance very often does not suf- 
fice, v^e find. The parents themselves must win the 
confidence of the child and supplant the pernicious 
mental activities by better thoughts and better occu- 
pations. Sex affairs themselves are not under dis- 
cussion here, but this is one of the several places 
where they are related to stealing. It makes a diffi- 
cult situation for a boy to have to meet through 
companionship constant renewal of thoughts and 
suggestions concerning such things as the secrets we 
have mentioned. 

Treatment of Case of Bad Habits in Crowd. — 
Certainly, here again, the best measure to be carried 
out at first is a change of scene and a total change 
of companionship. In our experience difficulty in 
doing this forms one of the most marked disadvan- 
tages of poverty; here when a definite problem of 
moral import to the individual and to society is com- 
prehended there is little chance to carry out the ab- 
solutely essential measures. The successes we have 
seen, where there was not poverty, in the reforma- 
tion of such a case as the above are to be compared 
to the failure after failure among the poor, even 
after the cause has been discovered. Perhaps it is 
hardly fair to put the blame entirely on poverty, 
however, for probably the ignorance and incapacity 
of the parents were even more to blame. At any 



COMPANIONSHIP 49 

rate, the main point is that if such secret organiza- 
tions are not thwarted by constructive treatment 
and the individual is not given other interests, the 
chance of the steaHng or the other delinquency be- 
ing continued is great indeed. 

The Neighborhood Thieving Crowd. — A 
crowd spirit entirely different from anything men- 
tioned so far is found in our urban communities 
where in certain neighborhoods some of the older 
people have felt the sting of poverty so keenly that 
they are willing to connive at stealing and develop 
active disrespect for property rights. Such concep- 
tions held by parents quickly filter through to the 
children who, taking up with these ideas, are found 
to be more nimble and are less blamed by the police. 
We have known numerous cases such as the follow- 
ing: A boy of twelve belonging to a community 
made up largely of Lithuanians and Polish people, 
himself evidently the most intelligent of the crowd 
with whom he goes, gives us a fair explanation of 
the whole neighborhood situation. He has been 
repeatedly reported to the school people and to the 
police authorities for stealing. In his school he is 
reckoned as an industrious and right-minded boy. 
His parents are also more intelligent than their 
neighbors and corroborate what he says. It is a 
community of recent immigrants. There is consid- 
erable poverty and drunkenness among them. They 
live near railroad traqks. When a man is out of 
work and credit is low he can either attempt to get 



50 HONESTY. 

things by stealing or appeal to the charity organ- 
izations. Stealing is dangerous for a man. His 
wife, however, goes upon the tracks and picks up 
coal, his children do likewise. It is only a short 
step from this to their bolder exploits of breaking 
seals on cars and taking out bags of flour or tubs of 
butter, or of loading up a bag of grain to be sold. As 
this boy puts it, everybody steals around there who 
can. Further investigation of the neighborhood 
shows that more than one woman has been fined 
for stealing from cars and that it is a common 
thing to see them on the railroad tracks. This boy 
and his companions readily acknowledge that they 
have been warned by their teachers, and even by 
the police, to desist, and though they only range 
from eight to fourteen years of age they have al- 
ready been haled into court. The teacher writes 
that no one can blame the boys; they are victims 
\^of their environment, and so it seems. 

Treatment of Neighborhood Thieving. — In 
considering treatment for this sort of stealing we 
must allow for the part that neighborhood senti- 
ment plays in the formation of a stealing crowd. 
These boys could not carry out their depredations 
alone ; it requires their united action. For the break- 
ing up of the practise social measures are necessary 
that will take into account the needs of this special 
community. Relief of poverty might well in some 
cases first involve stopping the drinking habits. 



COMPANIONSHIP 51 

This was certainly the fact in the instance we cite. 
The backing which these people give one another in 
the idea that stealing is permissible for them can 
only be controverted by altering their general condi- 
tions. Disciplining a number of parents and chil- 
dren, if the discipline is severe enough, may alter 
the situation, but not nearly so likely is this to be 
^ effective as the introduction of measures for their 
\^actual social betterment. The treatment of the 1 
stealing by the juveniles involves considering the 
conditions and sentiments of the adults. 

Predatory Habits of Gangs. — The same princi- 
ples hold true of gangs that are specifically preda- 
tory. Gangs, just the same as individual offenders, 
have habitual methods of operation. Some of them 
specialize on stealing from pedlers' wagons, or 
taking out junk and anything else they can get from 
empty buildings. Some center their efforts on sneak 
thieving in stores, and still others engage habitu- 
ally in minor burglaries. The thieving tendencies 
of gangs are formed by habit, and there is just as 
much difference between them as there is between 
the operations of a pickpocket and a bank burglar, 
neither of whom overstep each other's professional 
lines for a moment. I remember two boys who 
came from poor families, but who were not with- 
out chances, inasmuch as the principal of their 
school, a fine social worker, tried to advance their 
interests in every way. These two lads could not 



52 HONESTY, 

keep away from a little gang, not made up entirely 
of boys from the immediate neighborhood, a gang 
that did nothing out of the way except to haunt the 
public markets and steal fowls and produce. Even 
when the older members of the crowd had been 
arrested and sent away, and the others thoroughly 
warned, the smaller boys, as if impelled by fate, 
continued right along in their old lines of delin- 
quency. 

The Strength of the Crowd Habit.— Whatever 
a boy might do were he alone, when with others he 
is pretty sure to follow the crowd spirit. And, 
then, the habitual tendency of a member of a gangl 
as soon as he leaves his own doorstep, is to seek out* 
his fellows. The mother's tale often is that others 
call for her boy, that they whistle for him and go 
he will. If shut in, he jumps through windows; he 
slips out half clothed, or he even gets away to join 
the crowd after his parents have gone to sleep. All 
the force of his habitual mental associations is 
aroused by his comrade's cry. Or if he is already 
on the street, merely to walk past the house where 
his companion lives, or near the place where the 
fellows gather, is sufificient to put him under the 
spell of the established gregarious habit. 

Breaking Up Undesirable Crowd Connections. 
— Realizing how important crowd life may be in the 
career of boys who steal, occasionally also in the 
cases of girls, a serious consideration must be 



\ 



COMPANIONSHIP 53 

treatment that is directed toward breaking up thie 
social habits that engender the dehnquency. We 
have seen scores of cases in which the struggle has 
been made against the delinquency with full knowl- 
edge of the facts of companionship, but without 
any alteration of the environmental conditions; un- 
der such conditions very rarely indeed has there 
been any success. We should counsel in all such 
cases that there be a direct attack; on the main 
source of the trouble; this will necessitate often a 
removal of the delinquent from the scene of mis- 
conduct and from the companionship of those with 
whom the stealing was engaged in. The objection, 
particularly of poor parents, that it costs too much 
to move is quite beside the mark, because frequently 
the actual money outlay for a thieving boy in the 
course of a few years is vastly more than moving 
expenses. Even from the monetary standpoint there 
may be much saving by the breaking up of gang 
habits. To be sure, v^e have known of cases where 
a youngster, whose family had moved out to the 
suburbs on account of him, returned at the expense 
of much trouble to himself to his old neighborhood 
fellows, but it was always where the only thing 
done had been the removal of residence, and there 
had been no reconstructive features added to the 
boy's life. There is homesickness for a crowd, just 
as truly as there is for family life, and it can only 
be overcome by affording new mental interests. \ 



54 HONESTY, 

Everything depends, we have found where there 
has been thieving in a crowd, on effectively breaking 
up the desire for the pernicious companionship. 

Social Temptations Derived from School 
Group. — Stealing, as crowd behavior, is some- 
times illustrated by the conduct of a group of school 
children, who merely meet in their school relation- 
ship and are not banded together for anything like 
predatory reasons, but who nevertheless are affected 
by certain social influences which lead them to steal- 
ing. More than a few times we have known of girls 
secretly taking money from home because other 
members of the school group regularly spent money 
with the crowd ; the delinquent ones did not always 
want to appear as recipients of favors. Then, too, 
we have seen the effect of a once established repu- 
tation for spending, if the child ceases to have the 
opportunity of honestly spending freely, on account 
of some change in family circumstances, it may hurt 
deeply to sacrifice social recognition thus gained. 
We have known of recourse to stealing lest a break 
occur in such an established reputation. The effect 
of companionship may be the same socially and mor- 
ally when it is dress which is the chief matter of 
concern. If a girl, for instance, no longer can have 
the good clothes which her family could afford when 
in better circumstances, or if a. girl persistently goes 
with others who dress better than she can, the temp- 
tation to steal may be great indeed. Children some- 
times go to great extremes and concoct curious plans 



COMPANIONSHIP 55 

^ in the attempt to avoid social slurs. Much lying 
may be indulged in by way of explanation of pos- 
session of articles of dress about which their fam- 
ilies inquire. The articles may be taken from other 
children or shops. We have known some instances 
where girls in their endeavors to keep up to the 
dressing pace of their companions at school have 
left stolen fineries in other girls' homes under vari- 
ous pretexts and have gone there on their way to 
school to adorn themselves so that the family might 
not know that they had these things. 

Rich Older Friends May Be a Danger. — We 
are constrained to call attention to the vicious re- 
sults under present-day conditions of the compan- 
ionship, of boys in particular, with older people of 
affluence, and especially to the great danger of over- 
liberality of the elders under these conditions. A 
good example of this is found in the effect in some 
cases of boys caddy ing for wealthy men at golf 
links. This is not the place to speak of certain 
direct dangers in such places through the boy seeing 
undesirable and even immoral conduct. We may 
here note merely the bearing of this sort of com- 
panionship on our present subject, stealing. We 
have come to know of some striking cases where 
the outcome of a boy being plentifully supplied with 
money during the golf season led to the acquirement 
of tastes and habits that could only be satisfied 
by thieving at other times of the year. A very 
bright lad who had gone so far in his stealing as to 



56 HONESTY 

break into a post-office at night, with great perspi- 
cacity phrases the matter to us.. He was only a lad 
of thirteen, with a good school record, who had 
done well at home. He outlined his delinquent ca- 
reer with vividness, stating definitely that it was 
the habit of having money given him that had 
ruined him. He had been much noticed at a certain 
golf club for his brightness, we heard from other 
sources, and several liberal men in an offhand way 
had given him heavy tips. His parents felt that as 
long as he earned the money he ought to be able to 
do with it as he pleased. These earnings ran from 
one to three dollars a day during the season. One 
rich man in particular, with a kindly heart no doubt, 
but with an utterly careless method, would give him 
one or two dollars at a time by way of a tip. This 
boy treated himself and others to all sorts of amuse- 
ments and eatables during the season, and when 
this closed he felt himself as deprived as a million- 
aire might who had been reduced to penury. His 
recourse was to petty stealing, which during the 
course of one winter went to lengths that astounded 
his friends. 

Temptations Through Association with Richer 
Companions. — From our extensive experiences 
with older delinquents, such as young forgers and 
embezzlers, we must emphasize the fact that analysis 
of some of these careers has shown clearly that their 
tendencies arose during childhood as a result of 
habitual companionship with children richer than 



COMPANIONSHIP 57 

themselves. The effect of constant sharing with 
these their wider opportunities and enjoying their 
expenditures was the acquisition of a point of view 
and the formation of social habits that could only be 
satisfied through the possession of more money than 
the individual could get honestly. This pathway 
is so easily recognized that we need not take time 
to give illustrations of how it has been followed. 
Beginnings may be in high-school life or earlier. 
The evils of such companionship are not confined 
to private schools; groups and social cliques may 
foster it under even public school conditions. Temp- 
tation exists in this for both boys and girls. Where 
minor delinquencies are indulged in with richer com- 
panions, no doubt the glamour of these adds to 
the trouble. Secret theater going and candy eating 
on the part of the girls; clandestine pool playing, 
smoking, drinking, dice throwing and other gam- 
bling in the case of the boys, form the types of be- 
havior particularly pernicious in such companion- 
ship. We find that stealing in order to satisfy the 
demands of such social life is not at all uncommon 
in children. Parents should be on the lookout for 
the dangers that may ensue from their children asso- 
ciating with others who engage in habits that they 
can not permit. 

Handling the Above Type of Case. — The treat- 
ment of the situation, when children are in danger 
from such companionship as we have just outlined, 
is not always easy. We might suggest that preven- 



58 HONESTY 

tion is usually a hundred times easier than cure 
later, when social habits and desires have been 
strongly formed. Particularly after thieving has 
been indulged in, it is difficult to know how best to 
proceed, because of the possibility of prolonged stig- 
matization of the individual that may follow on 
exposure and radical social changes without any 
other environmental alterations. There can be no 
doubt, of course, that for prevention or treatment 
of the stealing tendency already developed, breaking 
up of the old associations is most desirable. But 
only taking the child away from previous social con- 
nections produces deep chagrin and invites failure. 
Much better is complete removal from the given 
locality, perhaps by sending the child away to rela- 
tives, or to another school. In the cases that we 
have known to fail, the trouble has been largely due 
to an exhibition of leniency on the part of the par- 
ents, or else to their failure to take in completely 
and act on the grave dangers of the situation. ^One 
might say to parents, in general, that while it is 
much the easiest way to make light of children's de- 
linquencies of this kind, nothing is so fraught with 
danger to the offender himself as a weak parental 
attitude. 

Danger of Companionship with Delinquents. 
— It seems hardly necessary for us in this work to 
speak of the dangers of possible companionship with 
older delinquents. Guardians with any intelligence 
need not be addressed on this matter except to say 



COMPANIONSHIP 59 

that there is much more of it going on than they 
are aware. No doubt it applies mostly to children 
of the poor, and under the conditions of congested 
city life, but cases of such companionship are fre- 
quently found elsewhere, and in very different cir- 
cles. It is a curious and interesting fact that gre- 
garious traits are strongly shown by the majority 
of delinquents. The exhibition of these tendencies 
runs all the way from the deliberate teaching of chil- 
dren to steal by professional crooks, to the mere 
feeling of desire for companionship that leads an 
older boy or girl to take a younger one along when 
he sets out on an expedition in delinquency. Just 
as your thoroughgoing bank burglar is often on the 
lookout for a younger person of the same stripe to 
train with him, so many thieves are keen to train 
children in their arts. The day even for "schools 
of crime" is unfortunately not yet over, but more 
particularly we should emphasize the vast dangers 
that we have learned exist in the companionship 
of children with delinquents, particularly older boys 
who have developed considerable knowledge of 
thieving. We have known instances where a boy, 
becoming adept in the ways of delinquency, per- 
haps having been in court on account of stealing, 
and perhaps having come from some institution 
where more delinquency was learned, has taught 
and induced dozens of others to pursue at least 
some distance along his path. 



60 HONESTY 

Parents and School People Responsible for 
Pernicious Companionship. — When the compan- 
ionship with dehnquents is the result of neighbor- 
hood Hfe, parents themselves are responsible because 
they have not obtained full information about the 
companions of their children, but when these affilia- 
tions are formed through the school it is the school 
authorities themselves who are to blame. Society 
has no right to throw together, almost forcibly, as 
is done under provisions of the school law, individ- 
uals who in their associations are almost bound to 
contaminate and be contaminated. I acknowledge) 
that this is a very difficult matter to control, but un- t 
less special legal or social provisions recognize the_y 
danger, there is bound to be trouble. The fact of 
such delinquency-producing companionship is one 
of the strongest outstanding features of any study 
that can be made of delinquency among children. 
For the parents, teachers and other guardians of 
childhood to whom this volume is particularly ad- 
dressed, we may specially call attention to the fact 
that in our studies of the causative factors of de- 
linquency among repeated offenders, one of the 
strongest findings was the effect of bad companions. 
By this we mean that very frequently the individ- 
ual's whole delinquent career was started from a 
point when some other social offender influenced 
him toward wrongdoing. 



CHAPTER V 



DISCIPLINE 



WE have had occasion to consider the question 
of discipline from many angles. As a first 
statement we may insist that our experience leads 
us to believe that early vigorous discipline is not to 
be forsworn in the treatment of youthful delin- 
quency. If one were to take the testimony of some 
scores of boys who have spoken to us on this point 
he would hear that their failure to receive sharp 
parental discipline is considered by them the cause 
of the development of delinquent tendencies. Boys, 
yes, and sometimes girls, have said, "My father (or 
my mother) was too easy on me." ''I guess my dad 
should have used the strap; he never did." "If I 
had been punished when I began this I would not 
have got into such bad ways." And so one could go 
on giving many quotations, all to the same purport, 
namicly, that the offender felt that his career might 
have been checked earlier through discipline. (It 
would be possible to go still further and consider the 
statement of professional criminals who make it 
plain in their moments of candor that the reason 

61 



62 HONESTY 

they do not discontinue in their paths is that public 
authorities do not offer sufficient disciplinary in- 
centives.) 

Failure o£ Discipline Alone. — But that disci- 
pline may be an utter failure all recognize. The 
child beaten for misdoings may repeat exactly the 
same faults, or become embittered and so react in 
other unfortunate directions. Many such cases we 
have had occasion to know well, but the reader may 
be spared the ugly details of corporal punishment 
where it has been administered in full measure with- 
out bringing about any character changes. The facts 
being so, we may go back to consideration of the 
causes for the failure of such discipline. Punish^ 
ment that does not take into account the underly-\ 
ing factors of conduct and that leaves these as they j 
were before, is a most unreasonable procedure. 
Unfortunately there is a great deal of likeness be- 
tween this and the treatment that is carried out 
under the criminal law. In well-conducted juvenile 
courts there is attempt to avoid unreasoning appli- 
cation of mere discipline, through the use of social 
and scientific methods of diagnosis and treatment. 
In home and school life, with which we are here 
concerned, there is little excuse for an irrational ap- 
proach to the problem. 

Causations Are Not Met by Discipline. — In 
any contemplation of discipline the point should be 
raised whether it meets the situation at all. May 
there not be causative conditions in the individual, 



DISCIPLINE 63 

or in the environment ; may there not be the forma- 
tion of mental and social habits; may there not be 
any one of a hundred other points which should 
first be investigated and understood? Common 
sense itself would indicate such an attempt at under- r 
standing before introducing any severe measures of 
discipline. Sometimes, even when the facts are 
known and the causations are going to be met, a 
certain amount of discipli ne may be necessary to 
give the first stimulus toward change of conduct; 
but every case must be carefully measured accord- 
ing to its own needs. 

Efficacy of Punishment. — It would seem 
strange to have to argue at all for the efficacy 
of immediate personal punishment, but in certain 
circles a sentiment against this sort of discipline 
has grown up, largely, we think, on the basis of 
limited experience. Punishment properly conducted 
at just the right time, and without many of 
the unfortunate features that lead to its failure 
and to the development of undesirable reactions in 
the punished, is based on thoroughly sound psy- 
chological considerations. One of the prime deter- 
minants of behavior is whether or not a given type 
of action is associated in the mind with gratifying 
or with unpleasant experiences. If the idea or men- 

Ital imagery of certain conduct or impulses calls up 
at once the memory of undesirable resultants in pre- 
vious experience, a tendency to check the specific 
behavior is automatically set in force. Conduct it- 



64 HONESTY 

self may be thought of in terms of impulses and of 
inhibitions of impulses. 

Discipline as Deterrent to Unfortunate Forma- 
tion of Habits. — During the early formative 
periods of life, before the individual becomes ad- 
dicted to the many automatisms which adult life 
displays, the chance for influencing behavior ten- 
dencies by the association of unpleasant ideas is 
much greater than it is later. Habit formation, as 
applied to our present subject, means that the child 
who shows a tendency to steal does not have pre- 
sented to his consciousness sufficient ideas of 
unpleasantness when he voluntarily, or perhaps par- 
tially unconsciously and by way of impulsion, re:; 
news the thought of theft. One might say of the 
chronic thief that, had there been early in his de- 
linquent career adequate juxtaposition of the con- 
kept of suffering with the concept of stealing, these 
two elements of his mental content, by virtue of the 
laws of mental association, would, on occasion, have 
reproduced themselves in their original logical re- 
lationship and prevented the development of his ca- 
reer of misbehavior. 

Values of Discipline Essentially Psychological. 
— The essential value of discipline, then, is really 
psychological and should be based on what is 
known of the laws of mind. In the light of the 
latter, it is sure that one of the strongest methods 
of preventing misbehavior is by the prompt and 



DISCIPLINE 65 

early meeting of bad conduct by sharp discipline — 
C before, in the given connection, other associa- 
1 live habits of mind have been formed. (Certainly, 
Tiowever, even at the earliest delinquency special 
causes should be ascertained and dealt with.) The 
laws of mind are often to be seen working in their 
simplest phases in the feeble-minded, and we have 
noted with interest that some of the best equipped 
students of mental defectives say that punishment, 
even physical, at highly selected moments, may be 
most beneficial in the production of good conduct 
among defectives. The feeble-minded certainly 
often remember, above all things, that such and 
such behavior was directly followed by pain, and this 
tends more strongly than anything else to be a coun- 
teractive and deterrent impulse. The same may 
also be said about other types who, by reason of 
mentality, or even physical conditions, are not up 
to par in their powers of self-control. A little aid, 
as it were, from the outside in pointing out the 
paths of rectitude, and impressing these on their 
associative processes, however automatic or uncon- 
scious the latter may be, is not to be despised. 

Forms of Discipline. — ^The forms of discipline 
to be applied in these cases where it may prove 
beneficial are not easy to deal with here. As we 
noted above, in order that there may be compliance 
with standard requirements of psychological laws, 
one essential is that the punishment shall be so inti- 



66 HONESTY 

mately connected mentally with the fault that any 
repetition of the impulse brings at once to mind the 
painful experience. 

Dangers of Deferred Punishment. — ^This leads 
us to see that a deferred punishment is apt to defeat 
its own purpose. The method that we have found 
in some households, where the child is informed 
that a beating will be forthcoming when the father 
returns at night, or perhaps at the end of a week 
when he returns from a business trip, is altogether 
lacking in psychological discernment, because the 1 
behavior and the punishment are not contiguous in ^ 
time. Between the two events there is the oppor- 
tunity for development in the child's mind of unfor- 
tunate ideas concerning the punishment itself. Not 
the least of the possibilities is the nervous trouble 
that a long contemplated whipping may produce. 
I have known of a number of cases where a child 
was greatly racked in spirit and much disturbed 
nervously by the thought of what was coming. 
There may be even greater misfortune in the devel- 
opment of a grudge against the parent who is com- 
ing home to avenge. From no such procedure as this | 
can a constructive helpful regime be built up. 

Short Immediate Punishment Best. — ^The 
short, the sharp and immediate punishment Is by far 
the best. I, for one, in the light of the fact that 
some children so willingly Inflict pain on others, am 
not at all against the Infliction of some form of 
quick corporal punishment on them. We may grant 



DISCIPLINE 67 

that giving pain evolves evoking the crudest meas- 
ures of discipline at command, but children, or at \ 
least some children, are best appealed to by just such • 
simple methods. Here again, however, there must 
be intelligent selection of both the individual and the 
occasion. Two children, even in the same family, 
may respond in a totally different manner to the 
same kind of discipline. 

Later Punishment Should Include Restitution. 
— The trouble in this matter of stealing is, of 
course, that discipline is only rarely to be carried out 
at anything like the same titp e when the misbeha- 
vior occurred. The theft may not be found out 
until long after it has been committed; only too 
often there have been hours and days of denial in 
which the truth has not been known. In such 
cases, unless the affair can be staged properly, as it 
were, and there is a chance for establishing in the 
individual's mind a forceful relationship between 
fault and punishment, making an indelible mark 
upon him, there is little use in carrying out sharp 
discipline. Much more sane in these cases that have 
continued along, it is to make the offender work 
hard in some way to refund whatever loss there has 
been. A mere slight deprivation that is sometimes 
carried out by way of punishment, is apt to make 
the whole affair one of give and take, and future 
consideration of a like offense may involve the 
offender's debating whether the pleasures of delin- 
quency overbalance a possible deprivation. 



68 HONESTY, 

Punishment for Petty Stealing from Parents. 
— In certain stealing by young children of which 
we have heard so often, where small sums of money 
have been taken from parents for small pleasures, I 
would hold to immediate punishment in which some 
sort of painful experience is given, and then that 
there be inflexible insistence on restitution. By 
painful experience I do not necessarily mean whip- 
ping; there are other punishments, such as being 
put to bed without any playthings, or, if the child 
is robust, being forced to go hungry for a meal, or 
anything that immediately fits the special case. 

Punishment Versus Prevention. — One method 
of dealing with children's dishonesty that has often 
come to our notice should be mentioned because of 
its peculiar aspects. I speak of the treatment by 
those parents who insist that the only way to pre- 
vent their child from stealing is to place tempting 
things under lock and key. If one gets heavy 
enough locks this is, of course, one form of pre- 
vention, and fulfils the purpose which the parents 
seem to have mostly in mind, namely, the preserva- 
tion of their property, but we would insist from prac- 
tical observation of many cases, that this proves 
anything but conducive to the building up of charac- 
ter. Indeed, we are not sure but that it is a direct 
challenge and stimulus to misbehavior, rather than 
the corrective measure that the parents believe it 
to be. Ultimate resistance to the impulse to steal 
is not gained through negation of opportunity to 



DISCIPLINE 69 

steal; the world offers and will continue to offer J 
plenty of opportunities. In this respect the house- 
hold should resemble the outside world; the sooner 
the usual social situation is faced the better it will 
be for the development of the child. This negative 
form of alleged discipline has little to commend it, 
f for it reckons neither with causes, nor with the 
\ building up of internal strengths on the part of the 
I child so that unfortunate impulses may be resisted. 
^ Necessity for Individualization of Punishment. 
• — Those who assume the role of critic will always 
find it easy enough to pick flaws in the methods of 
discipline offered by guardians of children who are 
partially moral failures. Likewise it is just as sim- 
ple to deplore lack of punishment in such cases. 
What the family friend, the teacher, or the juvenile 
court judge when the case comes into court, says 
to the parents about their failure may be often true, 
but nevertheless the outsider should realize that the 
adjustment of delinquent problems through disci- 
pline is frequently not at all an easy matter. We 
find ourselves not much inclined to generalize on 
this matter, not even to assume any of the stand- 
points taken by the best philosophical students of 
general ethical problems. Again, by our realization 
of the immense complexity of the problem, the 
many varieties of mental capabilities, tendencies and 
traits, and the huge differences in experiences that 
make character reactions, we are thrown back to the 
idea that the matter of discipline is one for highly 



70 HONESTY 

individualized considerations. I am almost inclined 
to condemn the general adoption in an institution or 
S in a family of set methods of punishment, or of re- 
fraining from punishment, for that matter, as much 
as I am the type of action represented by the blow 
administered in anger. In all matters pertaining to 
the form of treatment for delinquency the guardian 
of the child should be at least a common-sense stu- 
dent of the child's needs and peculiarities. 



CHAPTER VI 

AMUSEMENT AND ADVENTURE 

THE lines of causation connecting dishonesty 
with amusement run in several directions. 
Stealing may afford the child the means of obtain- 
ing specially desired amusements; the impulse to 
steal may be developed through attending places of 
harmiul amusement; or stealing itself can be a 
form of amusement. All of these deserve some dis- 
cussion. 

Stealing in Order to go to Public Entertain- 
ments. — To steal in order to get money for 
amusements is all too common. It occurs more fre- 
quently, of course, among the poor, but even in bet- 
ter-ofif families the child may not be allowed enough 
to satisfy the desire for amusements that cost 
money. With the rapid increase, during recent 
years, of places of public amusement that cater to 
children this cause of stealing has been greatly de- 
veloped. And it is bound to be a problem of Ameri- 
can town life until parents and the community are 
educated up to the point of realizing the fact and 
acting on it, until drastic measures are taken to 
prevent children from acquiring inordinate and un- 

71 



72 HONESTY 

healthy desire for public entertainment. We our- 
selves have seen scores of cases where a child's 
stealing was the result of artificially stimulated 
craving for exciting amusement. 

The Habitual Craving for Exciting Entertain- 
ment. — The development of a latter-day habit 
involving the craving for exciting entertainment de- 
mands earnest consideration. There are a number 
of features of modern life that unfortunately tend 
to produce this habitual craving. Speaking of the 
results first, these may take the form of restless 
desire, and occasionally of behavior that almost 
resembles that of a drug habitue. Thieving may 
then be indulged in for the purpose of getting funds 
for satisfying the craving. The strength of the de- 
sire for exciting entertainment may be witnessed to 
by many a record of youthful peculation. Not only 
this, but we have known children with the craving 
so strongly implanted that they will undergo much 
physical discomfort in order that the desired e:?$:cita- 
tion be obtained. The place of amusement to the 
child may be like the flame to the moth — ^the con- i 
sequences are not foreseen, all the child feels is the / 
attraction. 

Moving Pictures Influencing Toward Stealing. 
— Nowadays there are two types of public amuse- 
ment that lead to intense craving for the exciting 
stimulation which they afford. In this discussion 
we are interested in them because of their relation- 
ship to stealing, and we may begin by considering 



AMUSEMENT AND ADVENTURE 73 

the influence of moving-picture shows. One might 
talk at length from general impressions about the 
effect which these shows possibly have on the youth- 
ful part of our population, but I have always insisted 
in such matters on dealing with known facts. Many 
mistakes are otherwise made through preconceived 
notions about what the influences may or may not 
be. We could offer many examples from our 
studies, but the following single case will serve to 
bring out the main points. 

Case of Stealing Caused by Craving for Picture 
Shows. — A boy of eleven years whom we studied 
was found to have decidedly good ability, and was 
a most attractive child. His family had immigrated 
four years previously. His home was good from 
a moral standpoint, but on account of poverty there 
was little to satisfy his particularly active mental 
needs, although the other children got along all 
right. The home was, on the whole, better than 
that of many of the neighbors, where the children 
remained honest. As the result of going to pic- 
ture shows with money given to him by his parents, 
and particularly from studying the pictorial adver- 
tisements outside the shows, this boy developed a 
completely overwhelming craving for this form of 
amusement. By the time we were asked to see him 
it seemed as if nothing could keep him away from 
the "movies," and there were many in his part of 
town. His parents allowed his attendance once or 
twice a week, but this was quite insufficient for him. 



74 HONESTY 

In spite of their forbidding him, he went very fre- 
quently. He had stolen many times to satisfy this 
craving and he had repeatedly stayed away from 
home on account of this misbehavior. The force- 
fulness of his unfortunate desires was evidenced by 
the hardships he underwent. He would frequently 
go without supper so that he would not be held at 
home and prevented from spending the evening at 
the shows. Sometimes, through fear of punishment, 
he slept out in boxes or under steps on cold nights 
after the last entertainment was ended. He stole 
money from home or from neighbors, and even 
shops, and he took articles that he could turn into 
money — all of it being paid out for tickets to the 
picture shows. The honest and hard working par- 
ents were absolutely unable to cope with this situa- 
tion, even after we had pointed out the possibilities 
of handling him through the utilization in other di- 
rections of his good abilities or through developing 
in him new recreational interests. After long trial, 
the situation, namely, that he had developed a habit 
which it was impossible under home conditions for 
him to conquer, became absolutely clear and was 
freely acknowledged by the lad and he was sent to 
an institution. This case, watched by us over a con- 
siderable period, is a fair example of many which 
we have seen. 

Notions of Stealing Learned from the Shows. 
— It has been generally assumed that moving-picture 
shows are a great influence in giving children the 



AMUSEMENT AND ADVENTURE 75 

impulse to steal. While it is true that in our years 
of experience we have seen sporadic instances of this 
sort, where the details of thieving and burglary were 
first learned from pictorial representation and then 
carried out, yet this type of causation has been en- 
countered surprisingly seldom . Perhaps if there 
were less vigilant censorship, pictures that repre- 
sent some glorification of thieving might be pro- 
duced, but actually there is very little of such pres- 
entation. References in shows to stealing are 
usually made quite incidentally and with following 
( up of the thief's career, showing that the outcome 
Jis not a desirable one. Let the good censorship con- 
tinue and I think we wall have little to fear from 
picture shows giving any direct impulse toward 
stealing. 

Amusement Parks Incentives to Stealing. — 
Another type of public entertainment that partic- 
ularly leads to thieving is that offered by the amuse- 
ment or summer parks that are to be found in 
many American cities. (To some extent the same 
class of amusement is to be found, in country fairs. 
We ourselves have had cases of stealing connected 
with these fairs brought to us, but, of course, in the 
country the tem.ptation is rare.) The glare, the 
glamour and freedom of these parks particularly 
attract children, and the many opportunities for 
spending small sums in excitin g^ ways lead to over- 
whelming desire for money. On account of the 
many inviting possibilities, comparatively large 



V^ HONESTY 

sums are often stolen. We have known of children 
purloining as much as five dollars or ten dollars for 
the purpose of completely enjoying themselves in 
an amusement park. The desire is, naturally, a mat- 
ter of growth after experience in one of these 
places — ^perhaps a few visits have been paid to the 
park in company with parents, or with money given 
by them. Particularly, we find children inciting in 
one another a desire to go to such a place. Occa- 
sionally they will accumulate funds even by petty 
stealing, in preparation for a prolonged bout of ex- 
citing enjoyment in these parks. Not a few cases 
of runaway children are found in such places, and 
the police there can tell of many groups of children 
who come and spend sums which it is doubtful if 
they acquired honestly. We have known of nu- 
merous cases of stealing for this purpose. 

Prevention of Attendance by Unaccompanied 
Children. — The problem of children stealing for 
the purpose of enjoying themselves in places of pub- 
lic amusement could easily be handled by commu- 
/nity regulations. It seems perfectly plain that 
(young children should not be allowed in such places 
/ unaccompanied by their elders. Even the considera- 
tion of the general welfare of young citizens would 
seem to make it imperative for communities to in- 
sist that these places be not open to children during 
the evening or at other .times when they should be 
at home or in school. Considerations of fatigue, of 
need for sleep, of eye-strain, of bad ventilation^ of 



AMUSEMENT AND ADVENTURE 17 

the unhealth fulness of the crowded assemblage, all 
should figure here. Even one reform, namely, for- 
bidding these public entertainments to young chil- 
dren in the evening, would be a step of importance. 

Vacation Schools for Prevention. — As a means 
of prevention, the proper sort of vacation schools 
might well be considered. If children were pleas- 
antly occupied in school during the summer many 
of the temptations and cravings to which we have 
alluded w^ould not arise. Such special cravings, in- 
dicating the possession of peculiar personal traits, 
such as in the case of the boy we cited above, who 
was so unduly fond of picture shows, could be made 
a study of, and counteracted by suitable educational 
methods. In school life there should be a chance for 
such discoveries concerning the individual as may 
indicate the rnany constructive possibilities there 
are for modifying character tendencies. 

Adventurous Amusement a Cause of Stealing. 
' — The best illustration of stealing engaged in as a 
form of amusement is found when adventurous ex- 
citement is the basis for the delinquency. We have 
mentioned in our chapter on Companionship the 
predatory spirit that arises in gang life as the di- 
rect result of bad example and teaching. Here we 
want to dwell more particularly on the child's 
own love of adventure, as such, normal and ab- 
normal, and show its bearing on thieving. Again, 
it will not be necessary to burden our pages with 
many examples, because the general fact is easy of 



78 HONESTY 

appreciation. The main point on which we would 
insist is the practical value of understanding and 
treating the cause itself. Otherwise, attempts at 
prevention of the delinquent tendencies are very 
likely to be a failure. 

The Crowd Indirectly Stimulating the Spirit 
of Adventure. — Whatever the individual may be 
by himself, as regards being possessed by the spirit 
of adventure, when with a crowd of boys there fre- 
quently arises a peculiar and specific stimulus to- 
ward performing deeds of daring. If one looks 
back to boyhood days, or analyzes behavior which 
illustrates the characteristics of gang life, one finds 
that the stimulus itself often is not at all a matter 
of direct suggestion. When boys come together, 
a spirit of competition and reckless daring is apt to 
be at once aroused, irrespective, perhaps, of any 
words said. The boy who, a few minutes before, 
was quiet at his own occupations, takes on an atti- 
tude and an air of excitement that often leads to 
conduct quite unlike what he would do if he were 
alone. Any day in community life this can be ob- 
served. The youngster, with his normal lack of 
self-consciousness, may be all unaware of the 
changed aspects of his behavior. However, that the 
worst in a boy comes out when he is with others, I 
think is not nearly so true a statement as that what 
Ms excitable in him flares up in the company of his 
I kind, and that his desire for adventure is thereby 
increased many fold. 



AMUSEMENT AND ADVENTURE 79 

Crowd Spirit of Adventure Leading to Steal- 
ing. — Quite apart, then, from individual pecu- 
liarities, and particularly quite aside from considera- 
tion of those cases where an abnormal love of f 
excitement and adventure is- shown, we may see the 
normal boy, and often the normal girl, presenting 
in crowd life, a tendency toward adventure that is 
to be studied as a phenomenon by itself in its re- 
lationship to stealing. That this really is a crowd- 
aroused tendency is shown by the fact that the 
stealing has no relationship to the actual needs of the 
individual. Indeed the offender may wonder, after 
he is in trouble, how he could have lost his own point 
of view and been spurred on to such unexpected and 
irrational conduct. 

Illustrative Instance of Crowd Stealing. — A 
number of years ago in Washington there occurred 
an affair which illustrates the point so clearly that 
the facts are worth relating. In a certain school 
which the children from the families of prominent 
officials and diplomats attended, during a number of 
wrecks there occurred a series of remarkable thefts. 
Many things were taken, books, school supplies, bi- 
cycles and other things belonging to the children. 
Valuable articles were also taken from the neigh- 
borhood. Now, what, stood in the w^ay of early 
detection of the delinquents was that they were not 
even considered as being the possible offenders. 
When the affair was finally run down it was found 
that about fourteen or fifteen boys with creditable 



80 HONESTY 

previous records, of good school standing, many 
of them coming from notable famihes, had steadily 
been plundering. They had a cave or retreat to 
which the goods were taken and from which they 
were recovered. The pecuniary side entered very 
little into the transaction, for while some articles 
had been sold, yet the amount derived had been 
nothing comparable to the sums readily obtainable 
from the parents by these same boys. The whole 
affair was essentially one of predatory adventure 
carried to an extreme by individuals who came 
from family circumstances that offered no possible 
excuse for the stealing. 

Change of Character When in a Crowd. — It is 
quite within the truth to say that children, who think 
it sneaky and wrong to steal when alone, may under 
crowd excitement be willing to enter into a thiev- 
ing adventure, even to the point of selling plunder. 
There is often an element of danger that adds zest 
and flavor. I think it is this and the excitement 
involved in the destruction of property that leads 
a group of young adolescents to do so much damage 
in an empty house or in an unguarded shop. 

Prevention Demands Realization of the Possi- 
bilities. — The common-sense points for preven- 
tion of delinquency caused in this way include 
realization of the changes in behavior that are 
produced by crowd life. Many a mother who con- 
fines her understanding of her boy to what she sees 
of him may be quite right when she says that the 



AMUSEMENT AND ADVENTURE 81 

stealing is absolutely unlike his general behavior, 
but quite wrong when she argues from this the im- 
possibility of his stealing while with other boys. 

Provision for Normal Crov^d Activities. — Pre- 
vention often means allowance for the needs of 
crowd activity. Since the tendency to congregate 
is natural in boys, wholesome congregate activities 
should be supplied. Boys' athletics and supervised 
play under a director in a playground are both 
means to this end. If any be disinclined toward 
such public or semi-public provisions because of ex- 
pense, let them remember that many a criminal, 
as w^e know by our studies, has gained his unfor- 
tunate attitude toward the w^orld and first formed 
his habits of delinquency through crowd activities 
that, under his environmental conditions, could not 
be considered in the least abnormal. 

Extraordinary Love of Adventure. — ^The love 
of adventure that, as a personal trait, shows itself 
to be beyond normal bounds requires separate con- 
sideration. It is quite a different thing from the 
spirit of adventure aroused by crowd life. The 
relationship between this trait and stealing is easily 
discerned. In ancient Sparta skill in adventure was 
directly fostered by the cultivation of adeptness in 
thieving, and stealing was regarded as a legitimate 
means for adapting youth to the exigencies of war- 
fare. We in modern life afford our children so few 
opportunities for exciting adventure that it is not 
surprising when individuals are occasionally met 



/ 



82 honesty; 

who by nature are unsuited, at least during the most 
active periods of youth, to our comparatively quiet 
environmental conditions. It is not to be alleged 
that there is any great number of children who 
would go to the length of stealing for the pleasure 
of the excitement derived, but yet the facts in a con- 
siderable number of cases are convincing. In not a 
few instances it stands out clearly that the stealing 
represents an adventuresome impulse quite out of the 
ordinary. 

Craving for Adventure is Sometimes on a 
Physical Basis. — The uncommon love of adven- 
ture that we are now considering is sometimes 
correlated with unusual physical conditions. When 
a boy, or occasionally a girl, is extraordinarily over- 
grown and has physical capacities that are only 
slightly called on by environmental demands, then 
one would naturally expect to find great restlessness 
and physical longings which, unsatisfied, may be re- 
acted to by adventuresome behavior. We have 
studied boys of twelve, thirteen and fourteen grown 
far beyond the normal for their age, and, perhaps, 
already a head taller than any other member of the 
family, domiciled in cramped city apartments, who 
have shown their innate cravings for hazardous 
predatory excursions. The very physiological nature 
of these boys is clearly thwarted by their narrow 
environmental possibilities, even where parents are 
good and seemingly intelligent. 



AMUSEMENT AND ADVENTURE 83 

Craving for Adventure May Exist Without 
Over-Development. — On the other hand, great 
restlessness of spirit and love for adventure and 
excitement sometimes rests on no observable phys- 
ical basis. Judgment of value on this point can 
be developed by direct observation of behavior 
and of bodily condition, and should include analysis 
of mental life and feelings. One is surprised to 
find occasionally in a physically normal or even in an 
under-developed delinquent that the act of stealing 
has afforded a distinct pleasure. It seemed to be an 
outlet that had satisfied the craving for excitement. 
In some it goes so far that thieving is regarded as 
being sport, as it were, an exciting game that is 
played. One would hardly believe to what extent 
this attitude toward delinquency can go unless he has 
worked out the facts of the situation with some 
offender whose thieving has this particular cause. 
The diagnosis of the true nature of the individual is 
a matter of the utmost importance because if his 
native traits are not recognized the right adjustment 
in his case is seldom going to be given. 

The Inner Feelings Back of the Craving for 
Adventure. — Now, it is not often that you get a 
child with powers of introspection sufficient to 
enable him to analyze his own feelings that led 
to stealing; with some the inferences have to be 
drawn from the objective background of the be- 
havior itself. The real nature of the stimulus to 



84 HONESTY 

action and of the satisfaction is plainly brought out 
in some by their own revelations. In a few instances 
we have had a chance to carry out a deep inquiry. 
The offender has definitely stated that he steals be- 
cause of the excitement this affords him, and when 
questioned about the appreciation of danger and the 
feelings of fear, has willingly acknowledged the ex- 
istence of these elements in his case. Then it comes 
out that with the child of this type there is appar- 
ently a pleasure even in the excitement that ap- 
proaches fear, including the rapid heart beat, the 
dry throat and the trembling hand. One most in- 
telligent lad told us that he stole because of the 

I pleasure which the danger afforded him. It was not 
at all that he wanted so much the things he took, 
or that he got pleasure out of the money, but in the 
finding of the place where the money was hidden, 
and in the planning for taking it, and in the skill re- 
quired to Escape detection, there was for him im- 
mense satisfaction. It must not be forgotten that 
even some girls get pleasure out of similar activities. 

I Individuals who show such characteristics as these 

/ may be particularly bright and active in general ; 

/ they are not at all to be regarded as abnormal. 
Love of Adventure Not an Abnormal Trait. — 
Indeed, the love of adventure is a trait that is not 
foreign to most of us. That some individuals find 
satisfaction for it in stealing may be due to prior 
experience, or to environmental circumstances rather 
than to any innate peculiarity. It is a thoroughly 



AMUSEMENT AND ADVENTURE 85 

understandable phenomenon. Differences between 
children in this respect should be noted, and their 
particular needs, if any, should be met by special 
provisions. The idea that an ordinary city environ- 
ment, for instance, fits the requirements of all na- 
tures is absurd. The inclination that many of us 
feel at times to break away from the restraints of 
crowded communities may be regarded as indica- 
tion of the possible urgencies in natures, which 
make for such dissatisfaction. 

Special Provisions for Ardent Natures. — So- 
ciety is not offering to youngsters, such as these 
just m.entioned, anything like the chances for being 
active as obtained a hundred years ago, in the days \ 
of sailing vessels, and of pioneering in forests and 
on the plains, or still farther back in the days of 
wandering journeymen, three-deckers and the i 
Spanish main. And yet we find occasional natures I 
with as much need for adventure as existed then. 
We have pointed this out to some parents and occa- 
sionally have been fortunate enough to get some- 
thing like full appreciation of these special needs of 
a child, and to get some provision for the same. We 
have noted then a complete cessation of delinquent 
tendencies. On the other hand, we have seen well- 
to-do and apparently intelligent parents who have 
not been willing to face the actual situation, and 
w^ho later have come to bemoan their lot because 
their boy was in the penitentiary as the result of a 
further search for excitement through stealing. I 



86 HONESTY 

know very well one case of this kind where the 
intelligent introspection of the boy years ago led 
him to see that the main cause of his thieving tend- 
encies was the desire for adventure, and this he 
never could quench. There are many spheres of 
activity, honorable and manly, where adventure is 
a part of every-day work. There is no sufficient 
reason why mothers and fathers should not perceive 
the special qualities in a child which make this type 
of life desirable, any more than they should neglect 
the abilities that lead them to decide on making 
the boy a mechanical engineer, or any other type of 
craftsman. 

Stealing as an Occupation. — Allied to the topic 
of this chapter is stealing engaged in as an occupa- 
tion, but since we are limiting ourselves to the study 
of delinquency of children, consideration of occupa- 
tional thieving seems hardly appropriate here. How- 
ever, there is no doubt that sometimes during the 
years of childhood the idea of stealing as an occupa- 
tion, or a partial occupation, does occur to the 
individual. In city life the idea comes usually 
through older thieves ; rarely we have known of chil- 
dren, even in a rural cornmunity, who have de- 
veloped fheir own notions of getting a livelihood 
through appropriating the possessions of others. In 
our work we sometimes see a boy who on account of 
hi3 small size and motor dexterity, plus the sugges- 
tions of some one else, is seriously entertaining the 
idea of becoming a skilful pickpocket. Such chil- 



AMUSEMENT AND ADVENTURE 87 

dren may practise the art and really enjoy it. We 
have known of several instances of very small boys 
who persisted in this in spite of warnings, until they 
had to be sent away to institutions. Jhe arts of 
thieving are sometimes definitely taught, as we men- 
tioned under the head of Companionship, with an 
occupational idea. Of course, such teachings arise 
almost entirely from the conditions of poverty, but 
it may be only comparative poverty, such as others 
in the same neighborhood bear the strain of w^ithout 
becoming dishonest. In the poorer districts of our 
cities the idea of stealing as a gainful occupation 
exists often enough among the young so that teach- 
ers and parents should be on the lookout to discover 
whether or not this most dangerous notion is influ- 
encing the child who is stealing. 



CHAPTER VII 

HABITS MENTAL^ PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL 

THE strange masteries over the individual 
which habits gain should never be overlooked 
in considering treatment of a case of delinquency. 
Even in young children, whose tendencies to dishon- 
esty have apparently just begun, underlying habits 
may be all-important. This chapter will indicate 
much of what the background in specific habit for- 
mations may be. (Every one, for the most practical 
ends, should be acquainted with what the great 
psychologists have said on this subject. For in- 
stance, no chapter that James ever wrote has been 
so popularly valuable as the famous one on habit, 
where he shows both the great values as well 
as the untoward consequences of habit forma- 
tion.) At the outset of our discussion we 
need merely say that the investigation into causa- 
tion of the stealing in the given case should early 
include study of the relationship of the delinquency 
to habits of any kind — social, mental or phys- 
ical. We all know that the part which habit plays 
in the every-day working of the human machine is 
immense, and we should realize that the chance of 

88 



HABITS 89 

the child's refraining in the future from the mis- 
conduct may depend on how well some under- 
lying habit has been discovered and conquered. 

Mechanics of Habit. — The mechanics of habit 
formation deserve short consideration. When one 
particular thought or action follows a given percep- 
tion or thought, a channel, as it were, is dug, or a 
track laid down in the nervous system so that here- 
after anything bringing the first member of the 
series into the mental content stands a chance of 
starting an impulse that follows the previously 
established path. Some have explained this by say- 
ing that along a formerly used channel impulses 
flow with the least resistance. Some sight or some 
sound, for example, may bring up an idea, or a men- 
tal picture which, flashing through the mind, re- 
leases, perhaps quite involuntarily, an impulse to 
action. Now, what specific action, what type of con- 
duct, is the outcome of the stimulus, may largely 
depend, even in very young persons, on the rela- 
tionships and sequences that have previously been 
established between stimuli and action. The path 
once trodden beckons on. The force of habit per- 
vades the whole of mental life and, indeed, is one 
of the main processes that regulate the association 
of ideas, the fundamental phenomenon of mental 
life. Habit is also a strong force on the physical 
side, where it is easily recognized by every one. As 
demonstrated in the world of social conduct, nothing 
is more obvious than-that one most readily responds 



90 HONESTY 

as he has responded before. Altogether it stands 
out clearly that a reactional response once made 
stands a greater chance of being repeated than had 
it never occurred. Lest this be misinterpreted, how- 
ever, it is to be remembered that this law of our 
being, as James says, acts oftener for good than for 
bad. 

Forceful Habit Formation. — Another point, al- 
though somewhat technical, has such practical bear- 
ings for us that we can not afford to neglect it. It 
is a fact well known to psychologists that any mental 
reaction that occurs with an extra amount of force 
is particularly likely to recur. The extra force is 
added usually through some context or penumbra 
of emotions centering about the elements of this par- 
ticular mental process. Now this has especial sig- 
nificance for students of delinquency because the 
original idea of stealing, for instance, nearly al- 
ways is accompanied by emotions of various kinds 
that give it, for the individual, an undue signifi- 
cance. On account of this, from the time of such 
a first experience, the idea of stealing may be 
brought into mental life with the greatest readiness. 
In exaggerated cases the idea recurs with such un- 
fortunate frequency and vividness that it becomes 
for the individual an obsessive mental habit. But 
without going to this extent, the force and strength 
of the reaction so strongly impressed tends more 
than ordinarily to follow the lines of previously 
enacted behavior. In other words, through the orig- 



HABITS 91 

inal mental reaction being given extra force, a re- 
active tendency is formed which has more than usual 
significance for habit formation. We should judge 
that this is the mental mechanism in some of the 
well-marked cases of habitual stealing that we 
have observed, when it seemed as if the offender was 
fairly unable to prevent the idea of stealing follow- 
ing on the slightest excuse in the way of an oppor- 
tunity. It is all out of proportion to the ordinary 
conduct of every-day life. 

Practical Discussion of Habits. — For the em- 
inently practical purposes of this volume we can 
best neglect the formal standpoint, and discuss va- 
rious kinds of habits in a single chapter. The living 
issues can not be better illustrated than through 
calling attention to the way the individual problem 
of habit is spoken of by the delinquent and by his 
immediate observers. With astonishing frequency 
one has heard the explanation, given perhaps by a 
young child, that the reason stealing is indulged in 
is because the habit of stealing has been formed. 
Or it is said that the stealing is a direct result of 
some other habit that interferes with moral well- 
being. All sorts of habits in the social, physical 
and mental spheres may be thus practically impli- 
cated for us, and the significance of habit formation 
is shown to extend over all these fields. When it 
comes to stealing, we can show that various habits, 
either directly or indirectly, may be influencing fac- 
tors. Here they may together best be considered 



92 HONESTY 

from the standpoint of the practical observer who, 
often fairly enough, says the child's stealing is the 
result of bad habits. To serve our ends, we may 
consider habits that have to do with stealing as 
A, mental; B, physical; and C, social. 

A. Mental Habits 

Through the dynamics of habit formation, exem- 
plified in the association of ideas, as mentioned 
above, we might expect to find a considerable amount 
of stealing brought about by the action of inner 
mental processes. We need not spend much time 
in theoretical consideration of this because from our 
large material we have many illustrative cases. 
Children in the most ingenuous fashion have told us 
what goes on in their minds inducing them to steal ; 
and in not a few instances we have obtained posi- 
tive evidence that a mental habit had been definitely 
formed and was immediately at fault. The phe- 
nomenon itself appeared most important, inasmuch 
as it showed clearly the way to attack the problem 
of the individual case. The following illustrations 
will show in some degree how mental habits may be 
involved in stealing. 

Case of Habitual Ideation. — A boy of twelve 
whom we studied, proved to be normal physically 
and mentally. It looked as if he were certainly 
headed for a criminal career ; the parents were much 
alarmed. We spent considerable time in analyzing 
the case and found no great difficulty in doing so 



HABITS 93 

because the boy himself seemed now fairly startled 
into self-consciousness by his own behavior. It ap- 
peared that a couple of years previously, once when 
his father was asleep, he, with probably not more 
than boyish curiosity, put his hands into his father's 
pockets. The immediate temptation to take a small 
coin was succumbed to. The theft was undiscov- 
ered. Following this he had much thought about 
the matter, for it was a desperate thing for an 
honest boy to do, and about it, at first, he had much 
emotion. However, the spending of the money had 
afforded him pleasure. The idea of stealing then 
began to occur over and over to this boy as a mere 
mental process, and Avithout any external stimulus] 
in the way of specially perceived desires or needs. | 
It developed in him as a mental habit, of which wx 
obtained a convincing account, mostly expressing 
itself in the content of his mental life at home in the 
evening. A long story could be told of this boy's 
growth of habits and impulses as he naively related 
them to us, but it is sufficient to say that after some 
interval he sneakingly took another coin, and then 
a third, and so on. The habit of thinking about the 
possibility of stealing from his father grew so that 
it was fairly obsessional with the boy. It went so 
far that when he would wake up in the middle of 
the night his mind would immediately revert to the 
possibilities of taking money, and sometimes he 
would long lie awake revolving this idea in his mind. 
So strong did the obsession finally become that on 



94 HONESTY 

two occasions he ran away, rising and dressing him- 
self after midnight, and fleeing the house with 
money taken from his father's clothes. We were 
most interested to learn that in no other way had 
he ever stolen. This shows how impossible it may 
be to combat such a case without ascertaining the 
basis of the temptation and tendency which, as we 
have indicated, was here almost entirely an affair 
of the boy's own mental processes. 

Illustration : Habitual Mental Imagery. — Since 
we first discovered the remarkable role that mental 
imagery may play in stealing, even by a child, we 
have been intensely interested in this phenomenon. 
In some cases it has come out vividly that the steal- 
ing impulse arose, not from the least intent or con- 
scious contemplation of stealing, but because there 
suddenly flashed into the mind a picture that 
served as the direct forerunner of an impulse to 
steal. Many varieties of cases could be cited from 
our experience, showing that the mental picture- 
making originates in different ways. It is impor- 
tant to note that frequently the picture flashes up 
as a bare recollection. The following will serve as 
a fair illustration of the phenomenon. 

An entirely normal boy, of good impulses in gen- 
eral, obedient in his family, and well liked in school, 
became an habitual thief. He proved to be very 
frank with us, and we had a splendid chance to as- 
certain beginnings with him. He was a boy of 
quick reactions. His stealing, he felt sure, always 



HABITS 95 

followed on the presentation in his mind of certain 
definite pictures. No doubt he had never clearly 
analyzed the process to himself before, but now on 
going over the matter again and again with us, it 
all stood out very vividly. As he explained it, these 
I pictures flashed into his mind, and at once he was 
\ impelled by the temptation to steal. In his case the 
\mental content was derived from certain vicious 
pictures that an older boy had shown him, where 
/the act of stealing was represented in combination 
* with sexualistic affairs. It was his very first intro- 
duction to the latter, and involuntarily it made a 
deep impression on him. After this, anything 
that suggested either of these two things, namely, 
illicit sex affairs or stealing, would bring back the 
pictures in his mind, until their reappearance became 
a mental habit that he found impossible to break. 
After careful study of this case we felt convinced 
that the often repeated delinquencies were the direct 
result of this imagery. Indeed we have never seen 
a case in which cause and effect were more clearly 
shown. The boy, even as early as we first saw him, 
at thirteen, felt the need of making a desperate 
struggle against this habit of his mental life. In 
the course of our study we found that he had dis- 
tinctly good visual powers, and could we have had 
charge of him we would certainly have advocated 
the building up of other and better, and perhaps 
more interesting, visual mental content which might 
have supplanted his previous imagery. His own 



96 HONESTY* 

struggle, bringing in nothing constructive, was psy- 
chologically a weak attempt at treatment, and proved 
of little value. In his environment this boy with 
such essentially good desires found no one to help 
him, even after he worked out the cause of his trou- 
ble with us. His conduct was continued until he 
came into the hands of the law and then he requested 
to be sent away for a long period. 

Imagery from Picture Shows. — Recurrent 
mental imagery leading to stealing we have ob- 
served as the result of frequenting moving-picture 
shows, but nothing like so often as one might 
suppose. Indeed, children who go to such shows see 
good things as well as bad, and on this account there 
may be much counteracting of bad influences. How- 
ever, the following is an example of what may oc- 
cur : A young girl, just arrived at the age where she 
cared for good clothes, was a member of a poor 
family. She saw several moving pictures represent- 
ing girls particularly smartly attired. Visualizing 
these girls, and imagining herself well dressed be- 
came an habitual part of her daily life ; she gave her- 
self up to day dreaming, 'which gradually became 
more and more vivid. She had opportunities to 
help herself to some articles of dress in shops where 
she went, and she did so largely, it seems, under the 
influence of these pictures. We noted with interest 
that she stated that it was during certain periods of 
idleness and waiting, particularly in these shops, 
that the pictures came up in her mind. 



HABITS 97 

Stealing a Habit in Itself. — In not a few cases 
we have been met, by way of explanation, with the 
statement from the delinquent that the misconduct 
was due to "my habit of stealing/' In many instances 
; of children, who are rather unintelligent, it would 
be difficult to know just what the basis of the habit 
is, but it seems clear that once having stolen, an im- 
pulse toward the same form of delinquency readily \ 
recurs through any one of a number of given chan- ' 
nels. The individual comes to look upon himself 
as one who on occasion may be a thief. It is the old 
story of the trodden path being easy to follow. The 
combating of this conception of the self may re- 
quire alteration of any one of a number of factors, 
according to the given case. It may not be clear 
that the habitual idea of stealing is due to mental 
pictures or to recurrent self -initiated thought proc- 
esses, and yet the total result is largely the outcome 
of habit. The sight of the grocery store from/ 
which eatables have previously been taken, the whis- 
tle of a comrade with whom stealing has been car- 
ried on may form the stimulus that starts up im- 
pulses along habit- worn paths of mental life and 
conduct. 

B. Physical Habits 

It would be very difficult to make a line of de- 
marcation between mental and physical habits — the 
latter embody so many psychological features — but 
for convenience' sake we may group those habits 



98 HONESTY 

that are largely based on what we call physical 
sensation. Of course, these might very properly be 
entitled psychophysical habits. The connection of 
such habits with stealing is only indirect, but never- 
theless may be causally very important. The given 
habit may be a large factor in causing delinquency. 

Use of Alcohol. — For our readers, fortunately, 
we need take little space in discussing the use of 
alcohol among American children; it is rare. The 
relation of alcohol drinking to misconduct is not ob- 
servable to any extent in males in this country until 
about seventeen years of age. Very occasionally we 
have known of a group of boys drinking together, 
perhaps in barns, and there concocting half -drunken 
schemes for adventure and plunder. As a result 
there may ensue street robbery and even burglary. 
It is astonishing how reckless a young adolescent 
may become under the influence of even small quan- 
tities of intoxicating drinks. The immaturity of the 
nervous system at this age brings about an excessive 
amount of response to many poisons, especially al- 
cohol. The normal moral inhibitions under such 
circumstances are easily broken down and delin- 
quency results as a matter of course. The facts of 
the general relationship between crime and drinking 
are fairly well known, but they have never yet been 
emphasized enough, nor have the more accurate sci- 
entific and social aspects of this causal relationship 
ever been strongly enough brought out. When it 
comes to the question of drinking among juveniles, 



I 



HABITS 99 

we feel certain that adolescents should never be al- 
lowed even beer drinking. The moral risk is too 
great. 

Bad Sex Habits. — It is of course clear that we 
can not here, with the freedom of a physiological 
treatise, discuss the various sex habits, indulgence in 
which frequently undermines the will to do right, 
but we should in no uncertain terms call attention 
to this very striking fact, the knowledge of which 
has been brought to our attention over and over 
again. Nothing is surer in our experience than that 
one of the greatest causes of delinquency, including 
stealing, is secret sex practises. Many judges of 
wide experience with delinquents have become per- 
suaded of the correlation and have frequently com- 
mented thereon. In what way may stealing be ap- 
parently so indirectly caused? 

(a) By actual physical depletion, so that the 
functions of the nervous system are below par. An 
abnormally weak individual is produced, one who 
may be easily influenced by others, or by various 
sorts of impersonal temptations to stealing. Not 
only is the conscious will power lowered, but the 
usual mental checks and restraints which in the 
child cause him to refrain from stealing are not 
present in full force. As psychologists say, inhibi- 
tions are weakened. 

(b) Through mental lassitude there may not be 
the normal interest in ordinary childhood activities 
that keep the mind occupied. A full mind is the 



( 



100 HONESTY 

greatest safeguard against juvenile delinquency. If 
there are not the usual incentives from youthful 
energy to engage in strenuous activities, a path of 
less resistance may turn in the direction of such con- 
duct as stealing. 

(c) We have found, very commonly, that with 
a moderate amount of depletion and lassitude from 
bad sex habits, stimulants of various kinds are de- 
manded. When there is no longer pleasure in the 
more vigorous and healthy pursuits of boyhood, 
and girlhood, too, for that matter, peculiarly stimu- 
lating amusements and methods of passing away 
the time are sought. It is then that the child may 
have to steal in order to satisfy his excessive craving 
for picture shows, cheap theatrical entertainments, 
smoking and even excessive candy eating. It has 
been surprising to find, even among very young de- 
linquents, how frequently this chain of causation 
obtains. 

(d) There is often a peculiar effect on the 
whole personal morale through indulgence in clan- 
destine sex habits. It seems sometimes as if a sort 
of contamination spreads over the whole realm of 
conduct and causes the individual, secretly engaged 
in something that is felt to be wrong, to indulge in 
other delinquencies. The mechanisms of this moral 
contagion are not altogether clear, but experience 
makes one stoutly affirm that many a case of stealing 
in young children is not to be adequately met with- 
out appreciating and understandingly dealing with 



HABITS 101 

the sex problems that are confronting the young 
individual and causing him secretly to feel himself 
to be a delinquent. 

(e) Very frequently where companions, a couple 
or a crowd, have been stealing together it has been 
discovered that the real bond of union between them 
is not the predatory spirit, but is their common 
knowledge of illicit sex affairs, and perhaps their 
indulgence, either together or under mutual stimula- 
tion, in bad sex practises. Many a parent, or other 
observer, has wondered why, in spite of admonitions 
and punishments, a certain gang has not been broken 
up, or the hold of certain companions has not been 
relinquished, when, as a matter of fact, the reaHsgue 
in such affairs as are mentioned above, has been alto- ' 
gether unobserved. 

The upshot of all these remarks on bad sex habits 
leads us to say with emphasis that in all cases of de- 
linquency among children there should be a highly 
sympathetic inquiry made by the parents, or others 
interested, into the possibilities of abnormal sex life 
causing a trend toward delinquency. One must re- 
sist morbidness in this direction and avoid exaggera- 
tion of the facts, but it remains true that, since the 
therapeutist should always be a student of causes, it 
is advisable to explore thoroughly for this type of 
cause. 

Treatment. — ^The treatment of bad sex habits 
in children is a matter to be taken up with the medi- 
cal adviser and particularly the medicopsychologist. 



102 HONESTY 

This IS no place to discuss the details, but in general 
it may be said that in some instances physical condi- 
tions are at fault and may be remedied, while in the 
majority of cases it is undoubtedly the mental life 
itself that must be changed. Aid in accomplishing! 
the latter is to be derived from intimate knowledge! 
of persons, places and details of the mental content) 
concerned in the temptation. 

Use of Tobacco. — In the discussion of how the 
use of tobacco in children may be related to stealing, 
we can call attention to the type of indirect causa- 
tion referred to in the paragraphs immediately pre- 
ceding. Of course, smoking never does directly 
cause stealing, but it may be a concomitant and a 
partially causative phenomenon. The child may so 
run himself down by its use that through a weak- 
ened nervous system there is less resistance to many 
kinds of temptations, including social ones, such as 
thieving with others. Stealing, too, may be neces- 
sary in order to obtain the tobacco, and one must 
not forget the point we made above, namely, that 
when any habit is secretly indulged in there is easily^ 
developed a tendency to delinquent behavior along j 
other lines. This is true of the individual and of the 
group. The little crowd that gathers for the sake 
of smoking may find it very easy to engage in group 
stealing. 

Physical Treatment. — The treatment of to- 
bacco smoking (occasionally chewing) on the part 
of a child presents much less difficulty on the physi- 



HABITS 103 

cal side than it does from the social standpoint. The 
child can not have had a habit so deeply formed that 
it is to be regarded as impossible to break up. Of 
course, another side has to be considered, for in 
some cases the condition of the body, and especially 
of the nervous system, may be so defective that the 
individual has not normal amount of w^ill power 
to bring to the attack on the habit. If this be the 
case, then such defective conditions should be diag- 
nosed and remedied if possible. To conquer a habit, 
full bodily strength, on which good wall power is 
largely based, may be demanded. There is little 
except this to be said about the treatment of smok- 
ing. Various nostrums have been advertised as 
being peculiarly efficacious in killing the desire for 
smoking; various mouth washes have been advo- 
cated which give a distaste for tobacco. The latter 
may give a turn in the right direction, but there is 
nothing permanent about it. Unless the underlying 
psychophysical conditions, the foundations on 
which the use of tobacco have been developed, 
are met, there is going to be no lasting break in the 
habit. There is no danger from stopping the use of 
tobacco; one can proceed at any time to the essen- 
tials, namely, the building up of will power and tak- 
ing away temptation. But for the two latter points 
other considerations have to be taken into account. 

Altogether, we see no reason whatever for any- 
thing else than complete prevention of smoking by 
children. We have no patience with the mother 



104 HONESTY 

who bought her boy a pipe in order that he might 
not use cigarettes. It is not our business here to 
make a war on the use of tobacco by men, but we 
can at least insist that a child be taught the essential 
fact, that the use of tobacco is thoroughly pernicious 
during the stages of growth and should not be in- 
dulged in at all. Advising anything short of this 
dictum is weakness. 

Social Treatment. — There are definite psycho- 
logical and social considerations connected with the 
use of tobacco. The latter are the easiest to under- 
stand. Smoking is largely, after all, a social affair 
and it is always begun through imitation. Indeed 
the individual has often to struggle hard through a 
series of unpleasant experiences before he is able to 
overcome natural distastes. One can not get away 
from the fact that perhaps the most effective general 
treatment would be for elders to change their own 
habits. Then there might be some chance of the 
boy being kept away from companions who smoke. 
We have no sympathy for the father who fills his 
house with tobacco smoke and then feels aggrieved 
because his boys early develop a taste for the weed. 
Of course there are differences in tastes and crav- 
ings and some children once having had experience 
with tobacco feel a demand for it quite apart from 
any social considerations. But generally this is not 
the case. Then the psychological considerations are, 
in part at least, social, too. There are not only cer- 
tain rather pleasurable sensations, but there is also 



HABITS 105 

Satisfaction in the consciousness that one is ap- 
proaching manhood, or even that one dares to be 
and to do what is proscribed. The daring of it, as 
we may see in the case of girls' smoking, is no small 
item in the pleasure afforded. 

Use of Drugs. — In mentioning drugs, we are 
very glad to be able to say that, as with alcohol, the 
use of these is rarely found to be a causative factor 
in stealing by children. Occasional cases are met 
>vith where the use of cocaine, or some derivative 
of opium, by a child is so completely upsetting to the 
moral side that stealing is a natural outcome. But 
instances of the sort are far rarer, we find in our 
years of experience, than newspaper accounts would 
lead us to believe. 

Overuse of Tea and Coffee. — It is well worth 
noting that the overuse of tea and coffee by chil- 
dren is distinctly conducive to delinquency. Some 
parents are all too ignorant and neglectful of this 
fact, of which we have found greater evidence than 
we have of the connection of the use of tobacco with 
stealing. Let us discuss the matter in this way : It 
is a well-known principle in pharmacology that the 
effect of drugs is, in a general way, proportionate to j 
the size or weight of the individual. If the adult 
will remember the effect of tea or coffee on him- 
self and will then multiply this in proportion to the 
body or weight of the child, he will have some con- 
ception of the possible nervous influence that these 
beverages may exert. Not only this, but one should 



106 HONESTY 

also take into account the fact that nerve cells in 
young beings are in a much more excitable condition I 
than at a later stage, and are undoubtedly much' 
more influenceable by just such stimulants as tea and 
coffee. We are not at all sure but that of all the 
habits we have found related to delinquency in chil- 
dren there is more evidence of excessive use of tea 
and coffee being at fault than any other. In study- 
ing this effect, as in the case of tobacco or drugs, 
physical findings are usually present. It is not diffi- 
cult to recognize the, hyper-excitability of the nerv- 
ous system. 

When giving illustrations of cases one finds, here 
as elsewhere, a number of different factors uniting 
to give the result. In particular, the excessive use 
of tea and coffee is frequently the result of bad 
family oversight, which influences toward delin- 
quency in many directions. We find a boy, for in- 
stance, whose mother is insane and in an institution, 
and who has been left largely to his own devices at 
home after his father has prepared breakfast and 
left for his daily work, is an excessive user of cof- 
fee. The boy has developed a desire for it and keeps 
it brewing all day long. We find him a restless, 
nervous little fellow who dislikes school, and who » 
steals to get money for his nervously desired, illicit 1 
enjoyments. But sometimes the stimulants are al- ' 
lowed out of sheer carelessness, the parents not re- 
alizing what harm may be done. I have heard a 



HABITS 107 

mother say in an ofifhand way that her delinquent 
child was like a drunkard in taking tea and coffee. 
There is no need of giving further illustrations, but 
we may add that we have seen numerous instances 
where a child of eighty or ninety pounds was indulg- 
ing in ten or twelve cups of tea a day, or of half as 
many cups of coffee. 

Bad Habits vs. Efficiency of Nervous System. 
— Looking over the points made above it may be 
seen that the general bearing of them is to show that 
defective conditions of the nervous system produced 
by bad habits tend toward the production of delin- 
quency. No one could go so far as to say that other 
bodily imperfections are at all directly correlated 
with such an offense as stealing, but when the func- 
tions of the central nervous system are disordered 
there ensues several reasons why delinquency may 
partially result. The efficiency of the human indi- 
vidual, as I have often maintained, is largely to be 
gaged in terms of integrity of the nerve cells and 
of nerve conduction apparatus. This efficiency to 
some extent includes the basis for good moral tone. 
The imperfectly functioning nervous system gives 
abnormal opportunities for the activity of unusual 
desires and impulses. On the other hand, healthy 
impulses and interests which should have full posses-^ 
sion of the child's life, are not nearly so possible 
when nerve centers are not up to par. Moreover, 
the point has been easily perceived time and time 



108 HONESTY 

again that resistance to suggestion is bound to be 
much lower than it should be when this controlling 
part of the physical organism is not in good order. 

C. Social Habits 

As the result of experience I am constrained to 
throw great emphasis on social habits when consid- 
ering the possibility of doing anything about a case 
of stealing, whether by a grown person or a child. 
<l^We have had it borne in on us many times that 
there is little hope for the individual if his environ- 
mental conditions are not changed, simply because 
he otherwise will continue to be a victim of social 
habits already formed. The individual need not be 
particularly weak in order to be a victim of social 
habit, even to the extent of involving delinquent 
tendencies. Indeed, it would take an extraordinarily 
strong character to stand up against many unfortu- 
nate, besetting, environmental conditions tending to 
habit formation. 

Crowd Habits. — There are a thousand and one 

detailed circumstances that might be enumerated 

in considering social habits, but the following types 

'of facts will sufficiently bring out our main point. 

i Every case, however, will have to be studied for its 

\ own peculiar problems. For many boys the going 

\ with a crowd or gang is a social habit that is firmly 

; fixed. Let such a member of a crowd be out on the 

\ streets by himself and he is like a fish out of water. 

Out of school hours his life, when he is not with 






HABITS 109 

his friends, is most unsettled and unsatisfactory. 
When the actual call of the crowd comes there en- 
ters social suggestion, which is a different matter, 
but the call of habit in the individual is strong in 
itself, i We have heard this hundreds of times if we 
have heard it once, namely, that stealing was never 
done excepts under the individual's habitual social 
reactions in company with others. Let a boy live in 
a neighborhood where the boys go upon the railroad 
tracks to steal,(as; they do in cities; it may be 
desperately hard to break up this habit, as many a 
city policeman knows.* ' Since these boys have done 
this thing together before, and it has afforded the 
crowd exhilaration and adventure, whenever they 
come together, just from habit, their thought turns 
to the old scene of exploits. The pertinacity of such 
a habit, even after warnings of many kinds is aston- 
ishing. The small boy was asked why he was will- 
ing to risk injury and arrest; ''Well, when we get to- 
gether we always talk about the railroad tracks and 
we always think we are going up there and get some- 
thing.'' There may be plenty of other adventures 
within a mile or so, but no, they have committed 
this delinquency before, and just because of this 
their inclination is to do it again. 

Some Details of Social Habits. — ^The mere 
breaking up of habitual companionship is not always 
sufficient to conquer stealing tendencies. The indi- 
vidual may have cultivated such inclinations for 
crowd misconduct that he soon picks up with the 



110 HONESTY 

same kind of companions in another neighborhood. 
Not very rarely is this the case and it should be 
guarded against. A certain type of habitual crowd 
behavior is shown in the attraction that little 
gangs, mostly boys, but sometimes girls, find for 
certain kinds of stores. This does not obtain much 
in small towns, but in city life it is important, as any 
store detective will tell. 

Habitual Idea of Stealing from a Certain Shop. 
— A child who frequents a certain shop forms habit- 
ual reactions regarding the place. If his ideas cen- 
ter on stealing, and particularly if stealing has ever 
been successfully indulged in there, the chances are 
that he will come back and back to that particular 
store or to another one of the same type. The steal- 
ing may not be indulged in at every visit ; opportu- 
nity is not always afforded. Department stores in 
the poorer districts, where people send their children 
to trade, are particularly apt to lose by this type of 
stealing. A child who has stolen once there is al- 
ways on the lookout for another chance, and there 
are many objects of temptation in such a place. On 
our records may be found accounts of little school 
boys and girls who have stolen scores of articles 
from such shops. This type of stealing should be 
easy enough to prevent, and would be, were there 
proper parental care of the children. 

Habits Developed in Shops, etc., Which Chil- 
dren Frequent. — The call of social habit under 
certain circumstances is stronger than any child is 



HABITS 111 

Hkely to withstand. A group of children get into the 
habit of going into a candy shop near a school 
house, apparently an innocent place, but they may 
be allowed to cultivate thoroughly bad habits there. 
The dash and excitement of spending money may J 
lead to stealing from home and elsewhere. In some 
places a temptation is miserable little gambling de- 
vices. Still worse are the social habits engendered 
in pool rooms, but very fortunately these are con- 
trolled under special ordinances in large cities, so 
that children are not allowed therein, any more than 
in saloons. The shops in which children spend 
small sums of money are sometimes run by immoral 
people. Alany such instances have come to our no- 
tice and places of this kind have been even conducted 
as "fences," the woman shop-keeper inciting the 
children to steal and buying stolen goods from 
them. Attendance at these places establishes a 
habit that is hard to break. The little offender 
may half realize his danger, but yet going down the 
street finds it fairly impossible to go by the place 
without going in. The path is trodden right through 
that doorway; almost involuntarily the footsteps 
lead there. Places of any kind that children fre- 
quent, including apparently harmless penny candy 
stores, should be thoroughly investigated as a gen- 
eral social measure. 

Other points of import pertaining to social habits 
are considered in our chapter on Amusements and 
Adventure and elsewhere in this volume. 



CHAPTER VIII 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 



SOME forms of delinquency are, naturally, much 
more related to physical conditions than is 
stealing. Indeed, it is not common to find any 
physical trouble in children that can be reckoned a 
major cause for theft. However, physical diseases 
and disabilities in a wide range are found to be inci- 
dentally correlated with thieving and to be contrib- 
uting factors. We might enumerate many of these 
physical abnormalities. First among them, and easi- 
est to appreciate the effects of, are those bodily 
conditions that bring about failures, dissatisfactions 
and irritations in school life, and lead to truancy 
and its consequent bad companionship. We might 
mention defective vision, for instance. Here is a 
boy with poor eyesight who has never enjoyed his 
work in the schoolroom. With a great sense of re- 
lief he stays out, and the enticements of street life 
thereupon become many. He has no money, and 
as a natural consequence may get into petty thieving. 
Conditions Causing School Dissatisfactions of 
the Truant-Thief. — It is hardly necessary to go 
through the list of ailments which may cause dis- 

112 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 113 

satisfaction with the closed-in life of the ordinary 
schoolroom. We have found anemia, general poor 
conditions of nourishment and development, defect- 
ive hearing, and many other ailments responsible 
for this social and educational misfortune. Much 
has been made of diseased conditions of the nose and 
throat, and no doubt they are important. A child 
who is a mouth breather and who has large adenoids 
is quite apt to do poorly on the work that other 
children perform with ease. This leads to the irri- 
tations and consequences we have just mentioned. 
Many local conditions tend to produce the same 
outcome — none of them, however, would one lay 
special stress on as cause for stealing, although in 
every case they should conscientiously be sought for. 
The truant-thief presents a problem that is best 
studied under the head of truancy; the stealing is 
secondary. 

Over- and Premature Development. — Some 
physical conditions that are not nearly well enough 
understood as causative of delinquency belong in the 
categories of over-development and premature de- 
velopment. If a child is possessed of a superabun- 
dance of energy and lives in an environment that 
can not provide material proportionate to his needs, 
the reaction may be delinquency. We studied a boy 
of fourteen years, w^ho was six feet in height and 
astonishingly well developed otherwise. He was al- 
ready a head taller than any other member of his 
family. They lived in a cooped-up city apartment. 



114 HONESTY 

His career serves as a text for one phase of our dis- 
cussion ; we have seen many others who present the 
same characteristics. Some of the earliest of this 
boy's impulses were toward adventure, and after 
dark he found the greatest chances for leading his 
wild life. Under his social circumstances there can 
be little wonder that he began thieving — it is of in- 
terest to know that he frequently stole such material 
as would serve him for further adventure. For a 
long time he collected his plunder in hidden places, 
and as a last adventure stole a neighbor's horse and 
made off into the country with it, to begin a long 
journey toward the West. After we pointed out 
the essentials of the case, fortunately the father had 
discernment enough to realize them, and though the 
boy had not finished his school life, he gave him on 
a western ranch the opportunities that his nature 
imperatively craved. 

Physiological Restlessness. — ^To the ardent 
restlessness of boyhood, and sometimes of girlhood, 
can be attributed not a few cases of stealing. Physio- 
logical phenomena are at the base of this. Often 
the so-called nervousness is nothing more or less 
than a developmental affair. General over-size, as 
in the above case, is by no means always present, 
but the effect may be caused by such a factor as pre- 
mature puberty. Over and over we have seen cases 
of this kind where, particularly in boys, the for- 
wardness of physiological conditions was responsible 
for their not acting as their fellows of the same age ; 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 115 

the outcome has been that illicit adventures and sat- 
isfactions were sought. In such cases a great deal 
of care is needed; less, however, on account of steal- 
ing than because of other delinquencies. A free 
country life with plenty of opportunity for physical 
exercise and normal adventure is highly desirable. 

Exclusion from the Schoolroom. — Every stu- 
dent of delinquency in children well knows the 
moral complications that are caused through a 
child suffering from physical conditions which do 
not thoroughly disable him, but which prevent at- 
tendance at school. For instance, victims of chorea 
(St. Vitus' dance), quite apart from the mental 
manifestations which sometimes accompany that 
disease, are prone to get into trouble on account of 
stealing when they are not allowed in the school- 
room. Or the child as the result of some mildly 
contagious disorder, such as ringworm, or tubercu- 
losis, is subject to the same social temptations. 
Sometimes defective control of the bladder makes a 
child undesirable in school, much to the shame of 
the afflicted one. In several cases we have known 
this trouble to cause street life in lieu of school 
attendance, with consequent stealing. 

Psychophysical Conditions. — When it comes 
to discussion of physical conditions that affect 
mentality, this subject is best treated under the head 
of abnormal mental conditions. The prime consider- 
ation for the student of delinquency is the mental 
condition itself. The nervous diseases, epilepsy and 



116 HONESTY 

chorea, and severe head injuries that so notoriously 
cause instability of mind and character, also belong 
in the chapter on Abnormal Mentality Correlated 
with Stealing. There are other border-line cases 
in which it is hard to say whether the physical 
manifestations or mental conditions are the more 
important as correlated to delinquency — I speak par- 
ticularly of the neurotic types. In these we prac- 
tically always find several factors making for the 
production of bad behavior — there may be irritation 
at home through the presence of a nervous parent; 
there is apt to be over-use of such stimulants as tea 
and cofifee, and so on. The nervous child is no more 
likely than any one else to steal, except as he may 
be urged in the direction of delinquency by factors 
that overcome his often imperfect powers of re- 
sistance. 

Physical Conditions Causing Anti-Social Atti- 
tude. — We must not forget that defective phys- 
ical conditions may definitely cause anti-social atti- 
tudes. We all know this by observation of beggars 
and vagrant types. The deficient individual may 
early come, with more or less deliberation, to the 
conclusion that society owes him a living and that 
he is justified in getting it in any way he can. This 
is clearly expressed sometimes even in childhood. 
We have known quite a number of other instances 
in which direct advantage was taken of an ailment 
in order to carry out delinquencies that were pre- 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 117 

meditated and enjoyed in a way that ordinary pleas- 
ures and routine school work could not be. 

Case of the Above Type. — The case of one 
boy I have long known has always been a difficult 
problem. Following an attack of rheumatism, 
he has a bad heart lesion, which has always led his 
family and the school physicians to feel that he 
ought not to be burdened heavily with work. As 
the result of this, and of the negative family atti- 
tude, which amounted simply to their feeling that 
they must favor him and do nothing more about the 
matter, he always had much spare time on his hands. 
Notwithstanding his disease, he is, as frequently 
such cases are, an alert and active type. He has 
good mentality and for a short spurt can exert him- 
self physically without bad consequences. This boy 
became the virtual leader, and perhaps trainer, of a 
gang of little thieves. In some way he learned 
many of the tricks and arts of older misdoers, and 
through his skill it was long before the practises of 
himself and his gang were discovered. On some of 
their predatory excursions he performed part of 
the more skilful work while they did the heavy la- 
bor under his direction. Well planned burglaries 
were committed in this way; hours being chosen 
when these young boys might be away from their 
homes without suspicion. 

Physical Conditions That Weaken Will.— 
Quite in contrast to the class of ailments just de- 



118 HONESTY 

scribed we may consider unfortunate physical states 
through which the will is weakened and the Indi- 
vidual becomes an easy prey to temptation from 
within or without. We have spoken somewhat of 
this matter in our chapter on Habits. The main 
source of those physical conditions that bring 
about a weakened will, and lead to stealing, is per- 
nicious sex habits. Considerations of the same sort 
apply to any other cause of physical depletion; we 
can include the wasting of any chronic disease, and 
particularly the results of poor hygiene. The boy 
who starts out in the morning after having spent a 
night breathing air deficient in oxygen, for ex- 
ample, is much more prone to be a victim of temp- 
tations, to be easily led by bad companions, than is 
the individual who is in possession of full physical 
and mental strength. We by no means want to urge 
the conclusion, however, that the majority of de- 
linquents are suffering from atrociously bad phys- 
ical conditions. Indeed, we observe that among 
children it is very often the most active ones who 
engage in certain forms of stealing. But in this 
matter, as elsewhere, there are many varieties of 
individuals, of factors and temptations. Physical 
weakness may be a source of trouble and must be 
reckoned with. 

Importance of Treatment of Physical Condi- 
tions. — In summary, we may state that delin- 
quent children should be studied from the physical 
standpoint, in the first place to ascertain whether 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 119 

any physical conditions and peculiarities are caus- 
ative of the delinquent tendencies. We are not go- 
ing to find an excessive proportion of these, but 
such as are found may prove very important. In 
the second place, it is hard enough for the child with 
quite normal moral tendencies to get along under 
bad physical conditions, while it is much harder for 
delinquents to make good in such circumstances. 
Lest one may say, in this connection, as is often said, 
that delinquents are having too much done for them 
nowadays, that they are receiving too much study 
and attention, one might answer that society has a 
great deal at stake in the welfare of individuals who 
show a tendency to prey on it. Whatever can be 
done to check their tendencies should be done in full 
measure and at the very earliest opportunity. If 
physical conditions are in any way at fault they, if 
possible, should be remedied. 



CHAPTER IX 

ABNORMAL MENTALITY CORRELATED WITH STEALING 

UNDER the head of abnormal mentality we 
propose here to outline non-technically those 
deficiencies in mental powers and those aberra- 
tional types of mental functioning that are to be 
regarded in some individuals as partial causes of 
the delinquency, stealing. We would at once make 
it understood that in this chapter we do not include 
discussion of what there may be in the mental con- 
tent, or what may have influenced the mind by way 
of experience, which has led to delinquency. We 
shall discuss these elsewhere; particularly will they 
be dealt with in the chapter on Impulsions and Ob- 
sessions. Under the term abnormal we include all 
undesirable deviations from the normal, whether 
they be of the nature of original defect or absence of 
functioning ability, or whether they imply perverted 
function, as in the case of mental disturbance or 
mental disease. 

Proportion of Defectives Among Delinquents. 
— Much is made nowadays of the relationship be- 
tween mental defect and delinquency. It is very 
properly a highly important social consideration and 

120 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 121 

we would never minimize the urgent need there is 
for general education on this point, although we 
must confess to a lack of sympathy with the highly- 
colored statements and immaturely considered sta- 
tistics that have been in the last few years placed 
before the public. The realities -of the situation are 
bad enough; there is no need of any propaganda by 
exaggerations. Our own long experience has shown 
that specially gathered statistics by no means tell a 
true story concerning the proportion of defectives 
among delinquents. It has been almost a daily ex- , 
perience with us to see the defective caught after / 
perpetrating a trivial offense, or even while attempt- ^ 
ing it (not but that he sometimes commits a bad 
crime), while the brighter offender succeeds often 
in evading arrest during a career of many delin- 
quencies. The population of any institution for of- 
fenders represents only those who have been caught 
and, as far as juveniles are concerned, institutional 
inmates are nearly always those who were found 
not to succeed on probation. Very naturally, espe- / 
cially with girls, the defectives are just the ones who i 
can not be trusted without institutional restraint, ( 
and so statistics taken from institutional sources are ] 
very far from representing the true facts concern- j 
ing delinquency. By far the most careful study of 
the proportionate number of mental defectives 
among delinquents has been made by Doctor 
Augusta F. Bronner of the Juvenile Court, of Chi- 
cago. She took five hundred quite unselected cases 



122 HONESTY 

of juvenile offenders as they were brought to the 
Juvenile Detention Home and found that in cer- 
tainly not more than ten per cent, of the cases could 
the children be denominated mentally defective. 

Importance of Environment of Mental Defect- 
ives. — If one undertakes any careful study of the 
causation of delinquency, even when the mentality 
of the delinquent is clearly abnormal, it will be found 
that environmental factors must always be taken 
into account. This is most fortunate, after all, be- 
cause it points out the avenue to effective treatment. 
Concerning stealing, it should be perfectly clear that 
opportunities afforded and experiences passed 
I through have even more to do with the commission 
I of offense by a defective than in the case of a nor- 
/ mal individual, who possesses more initiative and 
makes to a greater extent his own opportunities. 
On the farm or in the small town the feeble-minded 
boy or girl is rarely known as an offender, but the 
same individual in a tenement district and where 
hundreds of shops afford many chances, readily de- 
velops a habit of stealing. The same is true to a 
less extent of the aberrational types, where the in- 
dividual is not so much defective as unable to con- 
trol his mental processes in a normal way. With 
Ithe mentally abnormal, then, the opportunities af- 
forded by their environment may be considered a 
large factor in the production of delinquency. It 
is from this common-sense standpoint that treat- 
ment is to be considered. If the mentality can not 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 123 

be brought up to normal, as it never can be in the 
case of a really defective type, then another of the 
factors causing delinquency in these cases, namely 

(environment, is to be thought of as the principal 
alterable condition. 

Need for Definitions. — In this discussion, ad- 
dressed to non-professional readers, it is absolutely 
essential that we have a clear meaning of terms 
used. Fortunately, definitions can be given v^ithout 
appeal to technical language. Indeed, there is no 
reason why the general phases of the whole subject, 
especially of mental defect, should not be a part of 
popular knowledge. Through failure of the law, 
and even of medical men not especially concerned 
with mental defectives, to keep abreast of recent de- 
velopments in this field, there is great and unneces- 
sary confusion of terminology. We propose here to 
follow the ideas of the two foremost bodies of sci- 
entific men who have dealt with this problem, 
namely, the American Association for the Study of 
the Feeble-minded, and the British Royal Commis- 
sion on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded. 

Basis of Definitions. — The British Commission 
made its long survey of the subject before the im- 
portant idea of graduated mental tests was fairly 
before the students of mental defect, but, neverthe- 
less, this investigating and deliberative body de- 
veloped a point of view, namely, that of the social 
characteristics and abilities of defectives, which can 
never fairly be neglected. The American Associa- 



124 HONESTY 

tion during its long existence had dealt with the 
whole problem almost entirely from medical aspects 
until about five years ago, when much more practical 
considerations won the day. It was then seen that 
the understanding and classification of defectives, 
since their organic brain defects are never curable, 
could best be thought of in terms of their psycholog- 
ical qualifications and their educational capabilities. 
As it stands now, any adequate diagnosis of the 
nature and possibilities of a mentally defective in- 
dividual must include medical, social and educational 
features, and to a large extent the two latter can 
best be determined by the giving of mental tests. 

Terminology. — Under an old terminology any 
mentally defective individual was designated an im- 
becile. We have quite outgrown this application of 
the word and also of the term idiot, which, how- 
ever, is still often retained in legal usage as mean- 
ing a feeble-minded person of any grade. The best 
classification to hold to is that of the American sys- 
tem, which offers the term feeble-minded as a gen- 
eric title and under it places three grades, namely, 
the moron, or upper grade, the imbecile, or middle 
grade, and the idiot, or lowest grade. Considering 
how impossible it is to draw a sharp line of demarca- 
tion between normal and abnormal types, I al- 
ways insist that the best way to approach logically 
the general subject is to speak of mental defectives, 
freely acknowledging that all persons may have 
mental defects along special lines. Then we can 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 125 

safely use the terminology of the American Asso- 
ciation, remembering another highly important fact, 
particularly for students of delinquency, namely, 
that there is a group that lies between the morons 
and the fully adult type of mind. Perhaps we can 
best speak of this class as those who are subnormal 
in mental ability. 

Definitions. — We now come to the point of 
actual definitions, and these we can discuss briefly. 
As I said above, the British Commission afforded 
us a very useful point of view when it insisted on 
social qualifications as a point of departure for def- 
inition. Difficult though exact determinations of 
the types may be by their scheme, yet the idea 
of it is fundamental, for, after all, defect and ab- 
erration are ultimately nothing more or less than 
social disqualifications. This Commission stated 
that in studying mental defectives they were con- 
cerned with those individuals where there *'was a 
state of mental defect from birth, or from an early 
age, due to incomplete cerebral development, in con- 
sequence of which the person affected is unable to 
perform duties as a member of society in the posi- 
tion of life to which he was born." They also went 
on to define the three types, the highest of which 
(corresponding to our class of morons) is "one who 
is capable of earning a living under favorable cir- 
cumstances, but who is incapable, from mental de- 
fect existing from birth, or from an early age, (a) 
of competing on equal terms with his normal fel- 



126 HONESTY 

lows; or (b) of managing himself and his affairs 
with ordinary prudence." The middle grade, or im- 
becile, is defined as ''one who, by reason of mental 
defect existing from birth, or from early age, is in- 
capable of earning his own living, but is capable of 
guarding himself against common physical dan- 
gers." The lowest grade, or idiot, is given as "a 
person so deeply defective in mind from birth, or 
from early age, that he is unable to guard himself 
against common physical dangers." 

Classification by Tests. — The American Asso- 
ciation has never denied the value of the above 
point of view, but has been most desirous for the 
sake of institutional classification and better diag- 
nosis before admission to institutions of getting a 
standard of definition which could be applied with- 
out the long observation that the British scheme 
implies. To this end they have employed the Binet 
system of tests, which although it is far from per- 
fect, affords at the present time the best graduated 
scale of intelligence that is applicable without a pro- 
Jonged study of the individual. This scale, it may 
at once be said, is to be fairly employed merely as 
a scheme for preliminary diagnosis, and like many 
other useful ideas, has been given exaggerated im- 
portance, as if by it one were capable of measuring 
all the vast intricacies and possibilities of the human 
mind, defective and normal. The plan of the 
American Association is to designate as the upper 
grade feeble-minded or morons those who are fifteen 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 127 

years or more in age and yet can only pass the Binet 
tests that are normally done by children seven to 
twelve years of age. The imbeciles are those who 
pass the tests of normal children from three to seven 
years old, and the idiots are those who go below 
this. In the study of children younger than fifteen 
years one can use this same scale for estimating 
mental ability on a basis of retardation, and the 
individual is usually considered feeble-minded if 
there are three or four years of backwardness, even 
though one can not say to what extent through 
education there may be improvement. It must be 
extremely rare that a child thus backward by these 
tests ever ultimately proves normal, because the 
tests, particularly for the younger years, are largely 
based on native abilities to pick up information 
from ordinary world experiences. Many of the 
tests depend comparatively little on educational 
opportunities. (It should go without saying that in 
the case of physical ailments that may cause in- 
ability to learn by ordinary methods or to answer 
the tests in the usual way the tests must be ruled out, 
otherwise even a deaf and dumb person, for in- 
stance, who had not learned to communicate, might 
be falsely judged.) 

Causation of Mental Defect. — ^This present 
work is not the place to discuss scientifically the 
problems of causation of feeble-mindedness, but a 
few words on this topic are pertinent to our prac- 
tical aim. School-teachers and other social workers 



128 HONESTY 

constantly find remarkable evidences of inferior 
home conditions, defective physiological develop- 
ment, alcoholism on the part of the parents, family 
diseases and clearly defective heredity correlated 
with mental defect in the child. The facts are so 
plain that scientific investigation is not necessary 
to make them clear. When one, however, endeavors 
to trace back to a single factor the causation of the 
mental defect, there may be great difficulty, and in- 
deed this may prove impossible. The alcoholic 
parent is frequently defective, the child who has 
suffered severely from a brain disease during infancy 
may previously to this have shown signs of con- 
genital defect. Exceedingly bad home conditions 
are often the result of parental incompetency. Not- 
withstanding the stress that is laid just now on 
eugenics, particularly on the possible results of 
bad heredity, we find in the actual field of investiga- 
tion that many defectives are undoubtedly such be- 
cause of improper ante-natal conditions and other 
developmental abnormalities, such as infantile dis- 
ease that affected the brain cells and caused arrest 
of mental development. 

Causation of Delinquency in Defectives. — In 
studying the causation of delinquency in a mental 
defective, instead of the causation of feeble-minded- 
ness, we are brought to a more complex situation. 
Here was a boy of eleven, for instance, who was 
brought to us because he was a chronic thief at his 
school and in the neighborhood. He was a feeble- 



ice \ 
)nej, 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 129 

minded boy, ranging seven years according to the 
Binet tests, a sufferer from congenital syphilis. His 
father was excessively alcoholic, and the home af- 
fairs were, naturally, atrocious. Any one of the 
four conditions, a drinking father, his own mental 
defect, exceedingly bad physical conditions, or a 
miserable home, might in itself have been sufficient 
to turn him toward delinquency. There is no chance 
in such a case for blaming the trouble on any one 
selected fact. 

In another case reported to us because of stealing 
at the tender age of six years, we found the boy to 
be already two years retarded mentally, and we ob- 
tained information showing that the family them- 
selves either directly taught him to steal, or at least 
connived at his doing so. One of his grandfathers 
was a great alcoholic and a deserter of his family. 
The grandmother was known to be a thief. One 
uncle on the other side was known to be a desperate 
criminal and another a drug fiend. One can well 
imagine the bearing that family life in such a cir- 
cle might have on the development of this little 
lad's stealing. Among the many possibilities of the 
case it would be difficult enough to know what 
caused this boy's mental defect, to say nothing of 
his delinquency. No doubt a very considerable por- 
tion of all feeble-mindedness is the direct result of 
the inheritance of similar traits, but we must remem- 
ber that there are also various other causes for 
mental defect. 



130 HONESTY 

Are There Moral Defectives? — On account of 
certain popular conceptions and usage of terms we 
must discuss in brief the idea of defect on the moral 
side alone. I know full well that many deep con- 
siderations are involved in a thorough covering of 
this topic, but after much observation of special cases 
bearing on this point, and through study of the 
literature, such as I outline in a chapter In my text- 
book for professional people, the gist of the matter 
seems to be the following : When the investigator, 
with the aid of modern methods of analysis and 
testing, goes carefully into the case of the offender 
who is supposed to be defective in his moral nature, 
one of two or three points always comes out. The 
delinquent may possibly, through the scientific 
study, be found to have very definite and important 
Imental disabilities that may not have been sus- 
pected previously. Or through untoward environ- 
mental experiences, or lack of normal social train- 
ing, it may perhaps be discovered that what is called 
the moral nature has not had the chance to be built 
up in the usual way. We can readily understand, 
for instance, that the result of a defective neighbor- 
hood spirit toward property rights, such as we speak 
of in our chapter on Companionship, may after 
years lead to the lack of normal feeling about what 
is really right and wrong in this respect. We remem- 
ber that the Spartan youth was brought up to feel 
that stealing by the use of cunning was praiseworthy 
and evidence of superior ability. Or, thirdly, the 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 131 

individual may exhibit chronically an attitude of 
lack of normal social appreciations as the result 
of certain conscious or even subconscious mental 
struggles or conflicts that are going on in him, all 
unbeknown to the world outside. If we investigate 
the case, using these three standpoints of analysis, 
we shall find very little occasion for consideration 
of "defect in the moral sense." The reader should 
be acquainted with the fact, also, that careful stu- 
dents of psychology and ethics conclude that there 
is no such separate faculty as that of a special moral 
sense. We know very well that our ethical con- 
ceptions and our behavior-tendencies are gradually 
evolved as portions of our social consciousness. 

Why Delinquency Among Defectives? — Not- 
/'withstanding a general idea which is abroad nowa- 
days, that it is explanation enough for a mentally 
defective individual being a delinquent because he 
is a mental defective, I challenge the satis factoriness 
of this explanation, not only for the sake of scien- 
tific knowledge, but also for the attitude of parents 
and teachers toward the mentally defective indi- 
viduals with whom they deal. One would not feel 
this point so strongly if one were not acquainted 
with clearly feeble-minded individuals whose no- 
tions of right and wrong are quite as well fixed, per- 
haps, as those of most normal individuals. To as- 
sert, for instance, that any mentally defective boy 
or girl is likely to steal if sent down-town alone is 
ridiculous. Many of them can be safely entrusted 



132 HONESTY 

even with money. The problem, once more, de- 
mands high individualization; the question is al- 
ways whether this particular defective individual is 
subject to thieving impulses and whether he lacks 
the power to resist temptation offered through en- 
vironmental opportunity. Technically, one dis- 
cusses his powers of inhibition. All of us, and par- 
ticularly children, have to use inhibitions to make 
us socially desirable persons. The mentally defect- 
ive more frequently than the normal person lacks 
the ability to fortify himself against impulses or 
temptations that arise from within or without. It 
is not then simply because he is mentally defective 
that the defective individual becomes a delinquent, 
but because on the average, more than others, he is 
lacking in certain powers of self-control that arej 
necessary for normal social adjustments. ' 

Mental Habit Among Defectives. — Going far- 
ther with this same point, we may speak of habit 
formation among mental defectives. Just as the 
defective person is commonly less capable of con- 
trolling his impulses than the normal person, so he 
is more under the sway of that important psycholog- 
ical phenomenon which we call habit. The funda- 
mental laws of mental life are quite the same for 
the defective and even the insane as they are for 
the normal. The stream of mental life goes along 
by virtue of one mental process following upon an- 
other, whether the process be under good control 
or not. The formation and utilization of habit, 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 133 

which always goes on, even along beneficent lines, 
as James so splendidly points out, is found prob- 
ably more among abnormal than in normal indi- 
viduals. It has often been pointed out by students 
of defective vagrant and workhouse types that there 
are specializations in the forms of their delin- 
quencies. One individual most foolishly steals only 
shoes, another, overcoats, and another, fowls, and so 
on. Even in childhood, before habits are so well set, 
one sees indication of this. A couple of days ago 
I studied a feeble-minded colored boy who had 
never stolen, as far as I could ascertain, anything 
but articles from wagons on the street, but he had 
repeatedly done this, although he had been chased 
and caught on several occasions. It seemed clear 
that a loaded wagon coming by on the street aroused 
a chain of association processes, a set of ideas, which 
developed an impulse that he had not, defective as he 
was, normal power to control. It had already 
reached the point that when drivers in the district 
complained, people would suggest this boy as the 
thief. 

Special Abilities of Defectives. — In several 
cases of stealing by defective children we curiously 
have been able to trace the tendency to offense to 
some particular ability the offender possessed all 
out of proportion to his general mental disabili- 
ties. The explanation of this sometimes seems to 
be the following : The individual has received very 
little satisfaction as the result of his efforts, either 



134 HONESTY 

in school or elsewhere. In the course of exploring 
the world, as it were, for satisfaction of such ac- 
tivities as represent his best powers, he finds that he 
can steal or get into a house without being caught. 
In this he is achieving success that he has not met 
with elsewhere. Acknowledging that it is the exer- 
cise of a low form of cunning, we may yet have 
common sense to see that it is one of the boy's few 
possible modes of exercising his strongest abilities. 
However, the capability displayed in the delinquency 
may represent, as in the case of one mechanically 
inclined defective boy whom we have long known, 
and who became a moderately successful burglar, 
/ capacities that can be recognized as desirable in 

(ordinary occupations. Pursuing this line of thought, 
we remember a number of subnormal boys who have 
really taken a great delight in showing themselves 
to be shrewd little sneak thieves. Some of these 
were accustomed to make good "hauls" from de- 

/ partment stores. So the delinquency of defectives 
is by no means always the result of lack of exercise 
of their faculties; it is sometimes the result of use 
of just their comparatively higher powers. 

^ Peculiarities of Stealing by Defectives. — The 
question is sometimes asked whether any peculiar 
type of stealing is to be attributed to defectives. We 
can at once answer this in the negati ve, especially 
when we are considering children. It is very rare 
that children enter into any deeply planned thieving, 
such as is represented by embezzlement and forgery 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 135 

and swindling, so that the usual type of delinquency 
seen among children is quite open even to the lim- 
ited abilities of a high-grade feeble-minded child. 
There are almost no criteria by which one could say 
that this or that theft must be the act of a mentally 
defective individual. Indeed, some of the most 
blundering and stupid performances in the way of 
stealing that we have known, have been perpe- 
trated under adolescent or other impulses of quite 
bright children. Since this is the case, there seems 
little occasion for us to give illustrations of stealing 
by defectives. About the comparative ease with 
which such individuals are caught we need hardly 
say anything ; the facts should be obvious. I am not 
sure that there is any great distinction to be made 
between the truth-telling characteristics as shown 
by the commission of delinquency in defectives 
as compared with normal individuals. Examples 
of both lying and candor are to be found among 
both classes. One would be inclined to say that per- 
haps the most prominent characteristic of the men- 
tally defective delinquent individual is the lack of 
\ foresight, which he demonstrates in his social be- 
havior as well as in psychological tests. There is 
often repetition of the same old offenses in the same 
old way, so that detection is easy, and after suspi- 
cion or on interrogation there is apt to be, if any 
defense is offered, a renewal of old types of denials. 
Teaching of Delinquency by Defectives. — One 
of the less known, but important occasional charac- 



136 HONESTY 

teristics of the feeble-minded delinquent, is the ca- 
pacity for leadership. We speak much of the feeble- 
minded lack of resistance to social suggestion, but 
often forget that they themselves may become great 
teachers of wrongdoing. We have had this fact 
forced on us repeatedly, and have known among 
defectives some ardent purveyors of the knowledge 
of delinquency. Perhaps these individuals earlier 
were merely followers, but later on they achieved 
leadership by virtue of greater experience and 
adeptness. Indeed, we have had some very aston- 
ishing illustrations where a number of normal chil- 
dren have been drawn into delinquency through one 
feeble-minded young thief who acted as a center of 
information and teaching. Let a mentally defective 
boy or girl be active on the physical side and possess 
fair powers of speech, and he or she may pass for 
being normal and, indeed, an interesting personage 
in the eyes of other children who, from inexperience, 
do not recognize the mental disabilities. Knowedge 
of groups of school children has shown how curi- 
wously such a situation may evolve. 

Walter R. was a little boy of eleven, moron type. 
He had never been any higher than the second grade. 
His mother was a very ignorant type from whom 
we could get little information, except that the 
boy suffered a very severe injury to his head at five 
years, the evidences of which were plain in a large 
scar. Home conditions were much at fault, and 
there had been little control of the lad. He was a 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 137 

great truant and vagrant wanderer, accustomed to 
stealing whenever he could. Perhaps through his 
adventuresome wandering he was regarded as much 
of a hero by the little lads in his vicinity. He took \ 
great delight in getting them to go with him and in- ' 
ducing them to steal, not only food, but also all 
sorts of articles from shops and department stores. 
His was really a vigorous personality, and the power 
he displayed over other boys of his own age or 
younger was the source of great annoyance to the 
parents and the many people who suffered losses. 

Joe S., at fifteen, was a vigorous well-built boy, 
but mentally was a moron of about nine years, ac- 
cording to the Binet scale. He came of a family 
in which the mother and maternal aunt were epi- 
leptic. The father was alcoholic. Out of sixteen 
pregnancies there had been ten miscarriages or early 
deaths. On account of the several factors men- 
tioned, the least that could be said was that there 
was a very poor parental oversight. This boy, by 
dint of much practise, achieved considerable skill 
as a young burglar. He often worked alone, but I 
sometimes took other boys with him and instructed * 
them thoroughly in his art. It was not until he had 
long been in delinquency of this sort that he was 
brought to the juvenile court. 

A colored boy, Albert R., at twelve years was one 
of the most arrant little thieves of whom we have 
ever known. He was regarded as a pestiferous resi- 
dent of the quarter of town in which he lived and, 



138 HONESTY 

over a long period, many attempts were made, short 
of sending him away, to cure his tendency. The 
father was an invahd, very Hkely from the same 
disease which caused the boy's congenital faults of 
physique and his mental backwardness, which was 
not less than four years. This lad consistently made 
successful attempts at teaching others to steal. His 
mother was a washerwoman who got considerable 
comfort out of his company and who bitterly fought 
any attempt to send him away. The boy's deter- 
mination to lead others astray was perhaps the most 
marked feature of his delinquency. 

We have known instances also of girls, where in 
a less adventuresome way, but with comparatively 
as much vigor, achievement of leadership over 
others in delinquent ways was displayed. 

Differences in Moral Tendencies Among De- 
fectives. — How far moral disabilities are surely 
indicated by the fact of defect in mental ability 
should be a matter for earnest consideration, prior 
to making general statements about the social needs 
for colonizing, or otherwise segregating, all mental 
defectives, and also prior to passing any social, in- 
cluding legal, judgments on them. Relying again 
on our long experience, we are not persuaded that I 



;' there is any standard correlation between mental 
defect and moral disability. Many elements of 
world-experience enter in to form the character 
tendencies of even the feeble-minded individual. 
Moreover, and strikingly important, is the fact that 



I 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 139 

mental defectives differ greatly among themselves 
in regard to the particular mental faculties in which 
they are below par. It is certain that some abilities 
have much more to do with powers of moral 
strength than have others. Estimation of Binet age 
w^ould by no means bring out the essential facts for 
discernment of such relationships; hence the fallacy 
of the notion that all individuals of nine mental 
years, as estimated by this superficial measuring 
scale, or of any other age, are to be conceived of as 
unmoral. Had we space we could give many illustra- 
tions of what we mean. We could show that some 
mental defectives brought up in homes where there 
was great care for their moral welfare have devel- 
oped quite moral social attributes. They are to be 
trusted to respect the property rights of others un- 
der any ordinary conditions. Indeed, we have seen 
some feeble-minded persons with a very well de- 
veloped sense of honesty. 

Causes of Differences. — Differences in mental 
abilities include many points which can not be dis- 
cussed here. Prominent among them is the quality 
that we may call suggestibility. There is distinct 
variation in this, we find, even by tests, among 
mental defectives, and suggestibility when unfor- 
tunately possessed in high degree is a mental trait 
that leads with great frequency to such delin- 
quencies as stealing. Concerning the stealing of de- 
fective delinquents, it has been of no little interest 
to us to note that in by far the greater number of 



140 HONESTY 

cases the individual has been brought up in an en- 
vironment where there has been much carelessness 
about ethical standards. Very frequently, in fact, 
have we noted that others in the same surroundings 
who are not defectives are delinquents also. There 
are many reasons for this, of course, including the 
well-recognized one that abnormal parents, such as 
exist in some of these families, make for the pro- 
duction of defective environment as well as defect- 
ive offspring. We should ever insist that when con-1 
sidering why the defective delinquent is what he is,l 
one must take into account surroundings as well as 1 
mental capacities, nurture as well as nature. / 

Treatment of Defectives for Prevention of De- 
linquency. — The general treatment of mentally 
defective children from their earliest years ought to 
include earnest attention to inculcating all possible 
feeling and realization of social obligation. Any 
guardian of such a child should, in all common 
sense, realize that the chances of its entering into, 
at least petty thieving, if it is to be allowed free 
life in the community, are greater than those of the 
normal child. There is plenty of evidence that good 
results often follow efforts at moral upbuilding, as 
>re have indicated above. In our chapter on Disci- 
pline we have mentioned the favorable outcome 
that even the administration of ordinary punishment 
^lay have in these cases. Nothing is so important^ 
for prevention as the oversight of companion- 
ship. Although this is not universally true, per-/ 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 141 

haps the majority of the feeble-minded are unduly 
suggest ible to ideas offered by others and, unfor- 
tunately, only too often are the social suggestions 
that they receive directed toward wrongdoing. It 
should never be forgotten that among these unfor- 
tunates, as among normal individuals, nothing isi 
so conducive to right doing as wholesome inter- 
ests and wholesome work. Splendid examples of 
possible results, when prevention is a cardinal feature 
of the treatment and w^here the development of men- 
tal and even emotional interests are looked after, 
are to be seen in the best colonies and schools for j 
the feeble-minded. It is wonderful what a small 
amount of delinquency is encountered in these in^ 
stitutions. ^ 

Importance of Treatment of Defective De- 
linquents. — When once a defective child, for any 
reason whatever, shows delinquent tendencies, the 
proper handling of the case is very important for the 
individual, for the family and for society. The 
proof of this is found in the fact that such children 
left to themselves, or temporized with, or treated 
by the methods applicable to normal offenders, are 
very likely to become typical recidivists, or repeated 
offenders. We all now realize that an astonishing 
percentage of older petty thieves, as met with in 
courts and institutions for adults, are defectives 
who have been pursuing their careers of delinquency 
since childhood. We must insist, also, not only on 
the harm that these people do themselves and the 



142 HONESTY 

trouble they cause by their own thieving, but on 
their abihty to teach others the ways of deUnquency. 
We have mentioned this elsewhere, but I feel the 
need of insisting on it again here. 

Physical Ailments and Bad Habits o£ Defect- 
ives. — Because children are mentally defective 
is no sign that they have not physical ailments that 
demand treatment. It is rather surprising to hear 
occasional expression of opinion to the contrary. It 
seems to be sometimes felt that if they are found 
mentally abnormal there is no need of doing any- 
thing for them medically. As a matter of fact, they 
show on the average much more than usual in the 
way of physical abnormalities, and physical condi- 
tions causing irritability are going to make the men- 
tal defective just so much more likely to show anti- 
social traits. Perhaps our best evidence on this point 
has been gained through observing truancy among 
defectives who are not up to par physically. One 
boy, who at twelve was much of a thief in his neigh- 
borhood, showed not only over four years of mental 
retardation, but he also suffered from nasal obstruc- 
tion, chronic heart disease and badly needed 
circumcision. One was not surprised to find that he 
was dissatisfied even in the special room where he 
was placed. It is quite possible, too, for the feeble- 
minded to engage in bad habits that may lead them 
toward such delinquency as stealing. We have 
known many who were addicted to cigarette smok- 
ing, who were indulging in bad sex habits, and one 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 143 

or two cases who even were addicted to drugs. All 
of these troubles should be taken note of and treated 
as thoroughly as possible. 

Need for Segregation of Defectives. — Con- 
cerning the main treatment of delinquent defectives 
there can be no question. When once a feeble- 
minded child has shown marked delinquent tenden- 
cies, segregation is nearly always indicated. For 
the several reasons that we have pointed out, the 
social chances of the future are against such an in- 
dividual. On the other hand, it is a well established 
fact that the good habits that practically always 
are developed during proper and prolonged segrega- 
tion in a well-equipped colony for defectives, do so 
influence tendencies that the individual is able to 
continue indefinitely there without being a discon- 
certing member of society. For such defectives as 
we are particularly concerned with in considering 
stealing, life in such a colony ought not to mean 
idleness or unhappiness. The individual may be 
trained to be largely self-sustaining and self-respect- 
ing. It is always a question whether or not, even 
after long training, normal social self-control may 
be evinced ; very frequently this is not the case. The 
good habits that are formed can be utilized under 
these controlled conditions, and it is much better 
for relatives to make up their minds to give these 
socially incompetent ones the permanent care their 
defect justifies. 



CHAPTER X 

ABNORMAL MENTALITY CONTINUED 

I EFORE going any further with the discussion 
of mental abnormality in relation to stealing, 
a distinction should be made clear that is most im- 
portant for the understanding of many cases of de- 
linquency in children: Mental defect is something! 
entirely apart and quite different from mental dis-j 
ease or aberration. In the one case the mental ma- ^ 
chine lacks from the beginning some parts that are 
necessary for normal functioning ; in the other in- 
stance the machine may be all there, but its parts 
do not work in unison, or are poorly supplied with 
force, so that the output is not normal. Another 
simile that might be used is that the defective is like 
one going through life without some bodily part, 
say an arm, and consequently being partially devoid 
of power, while in the case of mental aberration it 
is like developing a disease of the arm. In the case 
of the absence, or defect, there is no cure; the dis- 
eased member, however, may be susceptible to thera- 
peutic effort. The distinctions between these two 
should be a part of everybody's knowledge, since the 
possibilities in the way of education and other treat- 

144 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 145 

mcnt differ so widely according to these essential 
differences. 

Children with Special Mental Defects.— Chil- 
dren who have some special mental deficiency, who 
are not up to normal in one or two faculties, are 
hardly to be called mental defectives. Of course, 
most of us could readily be found below par in 
some, perhaps for us, socially unimportan t mental j 
abilities. When a child in some restricted mental 
field is not up to normal, this may be an important 
fact if the special mental disability causes him social 
irritation and failure. If there is much trouble, for^ 
instance, with arithmetic, as the result of native in- 
capacity, this may lead to truancy and stealing as ' 
the outcome of school dissatisfaction. We have seen 
a number of such instances. In some cases where 
the parents were intelligent enough to see the neces- 
sity for a readjustment of the child's life, or where 
the school system has been flexible enough to take 
care of the special problem without disparaging com- 
parison of the individual, an entire alteration of con- 
duct has been obtainable. 

Adjustment of Cases with Special Mental De- 
fects. — There is no sufficient reason in school or 
in occupational life for the complete misfit. When 
an individual of the type of which I am now speak- 
ing is properly studied by a good range of mental 
tests, his limitations and also his capacities can be 
ascertained, and adjustments can be advised in ac- 
cordance. We have definitely known that with some 



146 HONESTY 

the dissatisfaction caused by their special disability 

led quite directly to misconduct, in one instance to 

vagrancy and petty stealing. Those who have been 

fortunate enough to see a case of this kind develop 

^perfectly normal, social traits after proper adjust- 

^nent of school work or vocation to special needs, 

can appreciate this particular basis on which de- 

/ linquency can be readily built. Every effort should 

be made to understand and meet the needs of the 

individual who is limited by some special mental 

defect. 

Children Mentally Dull from Physical Causes, 
— Then there is a type of mental disability which is 
not primarily due to any defect of brain or mind, 
but is rather the result of some physical condition 
outside of the central nervous system. Educators 
have had their attention drawn to this class of de- 
fective children especially through the work of Pro- 
fessor Witmer, who many years ago began clinical 
work with cases of this sort, particularly with a 
view to increasing their educational and social possi- 
bilities. We have found that there is sometimes di- 
rect connection between this combination of dis- 
abilities and stealing. The roots of development of 
deHnquent tendencies are the same as in the prior 
type of cases. The child finds little comfort, satis- 
faction, or encouragement in school life. Some- 
times he also finds himself unable to compete on fair 
terms in ordinary play with his fellows. The result 
may be, as in a number of cases we have known, that 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 147 

sneaking social behavior is indulged in. Some very 
shrewd little thieves have proved to be of this type. 
It would surprise any one not acquainted with the 
beginnings of criminalism to see lads of eight to 
twelve years of age, who largely on account of their 
other social dissatisfactions, use their small hands 
for picking pockets, and are willing to show their 
adeptness in such tricks. It seems as if the stealing 
in these cases was compensatory behavior — ^the in- 
dividual finds nothing else that gives, after all, quite 
so much satisfaction. 

Treatment of Physical Causes for Mental Dul- 
ness. — Treatment of such cases involves getting 
the child upon a physical foundation^ for doing bet- 
ter. If the delinquent tendencies are already deep- 
set this remedy may not be sufficient, but sometimes 
it is. Those who are brought directly in contact with 
instances of this kind would do well to remember 
that the cost of a few months, or even a year or two, 
under more healthful conditions, perhaps in the 
country, where better mental interests can be 
aroused, amounts to very little compared to the pos* 
sible expense to society if these individuals later de- 
velop into typical pickpockets and sneak thieves. 
When mental dulness or retardation has arisen as 
the result of bad habits special treatment must be 
given, as indicated in our chapter on that subject. 

Few Children Are Insane. — Coming now to 
the discussion of mental disease or aberration, we 
may at the outset state that comparatively few chil- 



148 HONESTY. 

dren become insane. When insanity does occur, 
there are usually well-marked, accompanying phys- 
ical troubles, so that the case is easily recognized for 
what it is. An insane person of any age is one who 
is lacking in normal social judgment and control, and 
sometimes on this account may indulge in stealing. 

(In children stealing from this cause is so infrequent 
that we may pass over it lightly; all cases are to be 
treated at once by specialists. 

Insanity of Adolescence, — ^With the onset of 
adolescence, insanity becomes more frequent and, in- 
deed, there is one form of mental trouble which, as 
shown by several names given to it, peculiarly be- 
longs to that period of life. This disease is de- 
mentia precox . Delinquencies committed by suf- 
ferers from this form of insanity rarely include 
stealing. The individual is generally a solitary type 
with various well-marked aberrational tendencies, 

C but impulse is not often toward taking the property 

(of others. 

Stealing in Border-Line Cases. — Much more 
important are the various border-line cases, or mild 
forms of mental upset or mental disability to be 
found among children. In many of these cases, 
quite unrecognized in their true nature in the school- 
room, and often quite neglected on the side of men- 
tal hygiene in their homes, we have known stealing 
to occur. Some of the mild forms of mental trouble / 
may be best designated as minor psychoses, that is,/ 
those forms of mental aberration which do not 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 149 

reach such a height that one would care to charac- 
terize them as insanities. Many of these are 
eminently curable . Then there are the cases on the 
border-line of mental defect, and in these, too, de- 
linquency is very common. Our discussion below 
of these various types is, perforce, only illustrative 
and incomplete; quite inadequate for diagnosis, 
which must always be left for an experienced spe- 
cialist. 

The Constitutional Inferiors. — ^We may take 
first of these border-line types, the so-called consti- 
tutional inferiors. These are individuals who on 
account of congenital defects of organization are 
unable to cope with the world in an adequate way. 
The organic basis of their trouble is generally shown 
in some physical stigmata or defects. Their mental 
incapacity is shown by their weakness for sustained 
effort, their non-resistance to temptation and sug- 
gestion, their episodes of temper and irritability, 
their feelings of inadequacy. A typical example 
will probably offer the best presentation here of the 
characteristics of this type. A boy of thirteen, well 
nourished, short and stout, shows various physical 
defects, or stigmata. His development is childish, 
almost infantile; musculature peculiarly flabby; ears 
and palatal arch poorly formed ; eyes differ in color 
and visual powers. Mentally he shows himself able 
to pass tests for his years ; he rapidly runs through 
the twelve-year tests of Binet, but when given any 
prolonged task that requires good powers of at- 



ISO ^ HONESTY 

tention and continuity of effort, he fails. Things 
are always too hard for him to do. He plays truant 
occasionally. His teachers say he does well for a 
short spurt, but does not like to do any long task. 
His parents state that he is totally unreliable. He 
lies when it seems the easiest way to get out of any- 
thing. He steals to get means for enjoying exciting 
amusements, or for any little pleasures that sug- 
gest themselves to him. He himself tells us that he 
sees things in shop windows and wants them so 
badly that he can't resist the temptation of stealing 
money in order to get them. He has taken things 
from stores, as well as from home. He has pur- 
loined small amounts from neighbors' houses. His 
parents punish him, and then he always begs and 
pleads and promises to reform. Sometimes he gets 
very angry; he bursts into tears on the slightest 
provocation. Many who have observed him, pro- 
nounce him to be a weakling. 

Treatment of Constitutional Inferiority. — ^This 
kind of a case can only be treated properly by putting 
him under simple conditions where his bodily health 
is developed to a maximum and where he is freest 
from social temptations. Nothing can be done to 
alter the original defect. There is very little chance 
for a child like this to develop social normality un- 
der complicated city conditions. All of us know 
very well the dangers and the outcomes. Simple 
life in the country should begin at an early age, be- 
fore the call of city excitements is too strong. In* 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 151 

dividuals of this type readily fall into the habit of 
using stimulants, and this should be guarded against. 
The Psychoneurotics. — Quite a different type 
of abnormality to be found among children is that 
called a psychoneurosis. Here the individual may 
be bright or not, may be fully able to carry out a 
long piece of work, may not show any particular 
physical defects of importance, but often demon- 
/strates nervous instability and easy excitability. We 
/ all know such individuals; in their desperate 
I earnestness they may at times wear themselves out. 
^^s children, they may show periods of slight depres- 
sion, more often of over-excitement. At this time 
of life they show good powers of recuperation. 
When such nervous children engage in stealing,! 
their behavior is usually accompanied with symp-j 
toms of their nervousness, and they may become/ 
terrifically worked up about the affair. One has 
seen little girls of this type in which the stealing 
seemed to be almost a symptom of their disorder, i 
Outlook and Treatment of Psychoneurotics. — 
Cases should be handled with a good deal of care. 
Of course the outlook for them morally is, as a rule, 
good. They suffer so much from their misdoing 
that, with the advent of better control in later years, 
they are apt to stop stealing, but in the meantime 
one thinks of their nervous trouble as being the 
most important feature of the case to be cared for, 
and they should be properly treated under the direc- 
tion of a wise physician. I think that, almost with- 



1 



152 HONESTY 

out exception, cases of this kind cease their steaHng 
when removed from the undue temptations of city 
streets, and amusements, such as they should be 
guarded from on account of their nervous troubles. 
Minor Psychoses : Example, Chorea. — ^The 
only illustration I shall give here of a minor psycho- 
sis is that of chorea, or St. Vitus' dance. This is 
particularly selected because some cases of this dis- 
ease form such splendid examples of delinquency 
correlated with mental aberration. In this disease, 
j which affects in nearly all cases, to some degree, the 
/cells of the cerebral cortex, there are exhibited states 
^f mental confusion and lack of self-control. We 
ourselves have been astonished at the number of 
children who have been brought to our institute be- 
cause of delinquency when the cases have proved 
to be chorea showing some slight disorder of intel- 
lection. 

A Case of Chorea. — A boy of thirteen, who was 
reported to us by his mother for repeated stealing 
during the course of some months, was found to 
have been through two or three definite attacks 
of chorea in the last few years, and even at 
the time we observed him he still showed distinct 
signs of this disorder. As far as his behavior was 
concerned the boy would be quite normal at certain 
periods, and then again would show great restless^ 
ness and dissatisfaction at home. This led to his 
being out of the house much and mixing up with one 
or two bad companions. We were never quite sure 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 153 

to what extent this boy initiated any thieving enter- 
prises, but at least it was certain that he very easily 
acquiesced in suggestions of this sort. His mental 

/^tate was so disordered, as was proved by mental 
tests and his general social reactions, that he could 
be said to be partially incapable of judging the con- 

\^sequences of his acts. Since he had not been studied 
carefully during previous periods we could never get 
any verification of the relation of his delinquency to 
his prior attacks of chorea, but it was certain that a 
recent escapade, in which he entered a house with 
another boy and stole a watch and some other valu- 
ables, had been done when he was not in full control 
of himself. We advised thorough observation and 
treatment, under which he ceased his delinquency. 
This was several years since, and the boy has had 
no further record of stealing. 

Treatment of the Choreic Delinquent. — Cho- 
rea is one of the most curable of nervous diseases, 
and the mental symptoms that go with it nearly 
always disappear under proper treatment — ^the main 
feature of this being complete rest. No case should 
be neglected, on account of the danger of some 
chronic trouble arising. Even in this short state- 
ment we may say that in some rare instances the 
motor symptoms of the disease, the characteristic 
involuntary movements, may be nearly or entirely 
absent, and the mental symptoms predominate. 

Adolescent Characteristics and Instabilities. — 
On the very border-line of mental upset lie adoles- 



154 HONESTY 

cent instabilities. Particularly in the first years of 
adolescence are these shown. In the cases of older 
delinquent children studied by us we have found it 
necessary very often to attribute their misbehavior 
to irregular mental tendencies characteristic of their 
time of life. Early adolescence is the period of 
new ideas, new wants and desires and cravings, new 
social relationships, new self-assertions and the vari- 
ous other phenomena that have been skilfully 
enumerated by students of this age-period. In some 
cases no doubt misbehavior is the result of height- 
ened social suggestion at this time, but in many 
instances there is none of this; it is merely the 
springing up of such mental qualities as we have just 
mentioned that leads to the trouble. Still anotherj 
and most significant characteristic of this period isi 
the changeableness of mental attitude and the quick 
succession of ideas and conceptions of the self. Im- 
pulses arise and are given way to in a trice. The 
plans and ambitions of to-day are to-morrow for- 
gotten. 

Adolescent Instabilities Leading to Stealing. 
— The idea of stealing when it begins in adolescence \ 
may be self -initiated and be the impulse of an unrea^^ 
soning moment, or it may be due to some of the 
experiences suggested in our chapters on Impulsions 
and Obsessions. We have often been interested to 
note that frequently the adolescent who engaged in 
stealing now for the first time says of himself that 
he does not know why he did this. He did not in- 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 155 

tend doing it; here suddenly the impulse was with 
him and it was done. He regrets it and feels in a daze 
about the occurrence. In some instances there is so 
much disturbance shown by irritability at home and 
misconduct at school, that one is tempted to think of 
a real mental upset, perhaps a temporary adolescent 
psychosis. Most frequently we find evidences of 
adolescent mental changes and instabilities other 
than the stealing itself. It is hardly necessary to 
give illustrations of this type of cause for stealing; 
the general facts are quite plain. 

Treatment and Outlook in Cases of Adolescent 
Instability. — I have little doubt that in the ma- 
jority of these cases the individual when he comes 
to himself ceases his thieving. In fact, the treat- 
ment involves, more than anything else, just this 
awakening of the individual through developing 
Vself -consciousness, on the basis of which he can 
Igain self-control. Of course, in most cases, there i^ 
a complication of other factors, such as bad com- 
panions, poor home interests and the like. Each of 
these should be taken into account for what it is 
worth. When physiological phenomena, particularly 
those connected with premature development and 
over-development, complicate the picture there is 
more moral danger. Then the individual should be . 
taken care of with the physical side particularly in \ 
mind. We may mention here the point well known 
to neurologists, namely, that those children who 
come from poor, nervous and mental stock are more 



156 HONESTY 

prone than others to suffer from mental instabilitiea 
at puberty or in the few following years. 

One could not advocate in these adolescent cases 
any excuse for further delinquency on the ground 
that the individual was incapable of self-control or 
of knowing right from wrong. The fact that self- 
control was not exercised, that the individual 
showed in the stealing no apprec iaticmLof the wrong- 
fulness of the deed, bespeaks the age phenomenon 
that does not indicate any real incompetency in 
either direction. The individual, therefore, is to be 
handled simply as one who can do better and who 
needs to b e awaken ed. Although others, including the 
family, must not shield or excuse the offender, yet 
there should be a deliberate attempt to help him find 
himself. 

Forms for Treatment to Take. — ^To some ex- 
tent the new self-assertiveness of this period should 
be recognized as normal, and on the other hand, the 
need for self-control and social obligation is to be 
taught in full measure. This is one of the great 
character- forming periods of life, and the slight 
mental aberrations of which we speak should be con- 
sidered in reference to later development. The indi-i 
viduaFs future should be held in mind. All healtbi 
ful mental interests should be offered as never 
before, and the banefulness of bad companionship 
should be thoroughly taken into account. Out of 
these adolescent instabilities, and through the form- 
ing of bad companionships, bad physical and mental 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 157 

habits and a bad reputation at this time of life, come 
the development of whole criminal careers. 

Epilepsy and Delinquency. — When consider- 
ing mental abnormality as correlated with stealing 
in children, the group most important, after mental 
defectives, is that composed of the epileptics. There 
are various forms of epilepsy and we by no means 
intimate that all varieties are accompanied by mental 
disorders. Yet peculiarities of character and tem- 
perament are so characteristic of epilepsy that no 
discussion of delinquency is complete without a 
thorough understanding of the part that this disease 
plays. Very repeatedly in our studies of children 
have we found that a boy or a girl with distinct anti- 
social tendencies was the victim of this disease. 

Basis of Stealing by Epileptics. — Stealing^ 
may be engaged in by the epileptic because he is 
the victim of faulty inhibition of impulses, lack 
of normal self-control, abnormal social suggestion 
and reckless self-indulgence. These special mental 
traits typically develop during the course of this dis- 
ease. Stealing, unlike acts of violence, is very rarely 
indulged in during automatic or other mental states 
directly connected with an epileptic attack. Epilepsy 
is very frequently accompanied by a gradual dete-\ 
rioration that brings about even in childhood just 
such tendencies as we have mentioned. Many 
writers speak of "the epileptic character"; and this 
is one that has direct relationship to delinquent tend- 
encies. 



158 HONESTY 

Treatment of the Epileptic Delinquent. — 
There is no type that more urgently needs segrega- J 
tion than the epileptic delinquent. Until some cure 
is found for the poor victims of this disease one • 
knows of no way in which to check their character 
tendencies. Epileptics feel themselves unfortunate 
and at outs with the world, and sometimes feel they 
are justified in assuming the utmost recklessness in 
j their careers. This can not help but increase their 
I social undesirability. We freely acknowledge the 
most difficult situations we have ever been called 
on to handle have been those in connection with 
epileptic delinquents. One sees no help in many of 
these cases other than permanent segregation in a 
colony, where their attacks and tendencies can be 
minimized and where they are under the least possi- 
ble social strain and subject to the fewest tempta- 
tions. Stealing represents only a part of their 
delinquent tendencies. 

Basis for Delinquent Tendencies in Aberra- 
tional Individuals. — ^Just as we asked how it is 
that the mental defective becomes delinquent, so one 
might query why the aberrational individuals we 
have been discussing should show delinquent tend- 
encies. There are some distinctions between the 
two. A child suffering from an aberration, or a 1 
psychosis, is likely to act on an impulse started^ 
from within. The erratic working of the mental 
processes, the development of unusual mental im- 
agery may thus directly lead to delinquency. Of 



ABNORMAL MENTALITY 159. 

course the aberrational individual, too, may be char- 
acterized by poor self Hcontrol, and then may suc- 
cumb unduly to the suggestions of others; showing 
then the characteristics of the feeble-minded. This 
may be true in cases of chorea and adolescent mental 
upset, as we have shown above. One of the main 
differences between defectives and psychosis cases is 
concerned with habit formation ; in the aberrational 
types we have been discussing, impulses are usually 
temporary and not particularly repeated, certainly 
never to the degree and in the set forms that we see 
so frequently in cases of the feeble-minded. In most 
of the aberrational cases a main point in treatment 
involves introducing more incentive toward re- 
(StEaist of impulses and better development of 
/powers of will. As suggested under the head of 
adolescent instability, perhaps it may be possible to 
cultivate better apperceptions. In all cases protec- 
tion from bad influences is a prime necessity. 



CHAPTER XI 

IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 

WE HAVE found nothing in our study of de- 
linquents more important to understand, even 
for the most practical considerations, than the causes 
of juvenile impulsions and obsessions toward dis- 
honesty. Jhe importance is emphasized both by 
the large number of children one has met with where 
stealing was at once frankly stated by the delinquent 
to be the result of uncontrollable mental activities, 
and by the fact that in many cases, notwithstanding 
much admonishment, there was no change of con- 
duct until the fact and the background of the im- 
pulsion were ascertained. Indeed, it was only 
through observation of some few cases of enduring 
cures, after the real nature of the trouble had been 
found out, that we were convinced of the great role 
I that mental experiences and mental mechanisms 
[play in this form of delinquency. On the other 
hand, we have come to know of long careers of 
criminalism, reaching up to adult life, which have 
been almost entirely founded on unsuspected 
mental experiences during childhood. It is safe to 
say from what we have learned, that when a child 

160 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 161 

has developed a tendency to stealing on a basis 
of certain experiences quite unrevealed to relatives 
and guardians, he stands a large chance of con- 
tinuing in such conduct. To society, then, the value 
of understanding the individual's troubles and ad- 
equately meeting them is very great, since there are 
these types of experience that otherwise lead to long 
years of social misconduct. 

Our Exposition Not Technical. — It is rather 
difficult to enter this field of discussion from the 
non-technical side. It would be much easier to go at 
once into elaboration of what might be called the 
mental mechanisms of the situation that arises 
when such impulses as we are concerned with are 
set going. But we should then be dealing with the 
more professional aspects of psychology, and these 
we wish here to avoid. In the last decade there has 
been wide dissemination of knowledge concerning 
the possibilities of the application of psychological 
analysis, or psychoanalysis as it is sometimes called, 
in the sphere of the investigation of human conduct 
and its causes. Perhaps a better term than any is 
the one recently proposed by Sidis, namely, psy- 
chognosis — this expressive word signifying the 
knowing of mentality, the knowing of the content 
and mechanisms of the mind that lead to action. 
In these newer realms of psychological science by 
now there have been built many structures embody- 
ing technical principles and details which it is not our 
place here to consider. What we can do, however. 



162 HONESTY 

is to show clearly that this vitally important field 
does really exist with already discovered manifesta- 
tions and many known details of interest to us. 

Facts, Not Methods, Given. — When it comes 
to dealing with individual cases of delinquency, and 
that, after all, is the principal step to be taken, we 
are not at all sure that any amount of ordinary ex- 
planation will suffice to give to the inexperienced 
enough mastery of the subject to carry out success- 
ful analysis of the psychological situation. And 
only from this analysis comes such cure of suitable 
cases as expert investigation and proper following 
of well-founded advice affords. As in any other 
professional technic, long acquaintance with the 
subject and with many varieties of human indi- 
viduals alone gives the qualifications of a successful 
therapeutist. There are many particular considera- 
tions belonging to this subject that can never be 
taught, even from text-books, certainly not from 
such a short exposition as the present chapters offer. 
The many ways of getting at the matter differ as 
human individuals differ, and the experience that 
has been gained by dealing with large numbers may 
be an indispensable asset for knowing the right 
method of approach. We say all this by way of 
mild warning, so that readers of our discussion will 
not feel that from these pages alone one can get 
sufficient knowledge to go ahead with the difficult 
subject of psychological analysis. Should they do 
so they need not be surprised at failure. Our busi- 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 163 

ness here is simply to point out the existence of the 
general facts, just as the hygienist nowadays ad- 
dresses the layman and tells him of bodily disorders 
and of the possibilities of their prevention, without 
in any way intimating that knowledge is thereby of- 
fered of how to conduct a campaign of treatment 
against an ailment that already exists. 

Attitude of Children in These Cases. — In the 
investigation of juvenile delinquency, particularly in 
studying the child who steals repeatedly, sometimes 
we may observe a most curious attitude that the 
young person takes toward himself and his own 
conduct. Scores and perhaps hundreds of times, 
we have been met by a statement on the part of the 
delinquent that the conduct was something that 
could not be helped. Only yesterday a boy of thir- 
teen, thoroughly good in other respects, a member 
of an estimable family, said, *'I don't know what 
comes over me, Doctor. It seems as if it is some- 
thing I can't help. I am ashamed of it afterward. 
I just see something that doesn't belong to me and I 
take it." It, then, not only appears from the stand- 
point of the onlooker that something curious and 
altogether undesirable is going on in the mental proc- 
esses of such an individual with delinquent tenden- 
cies, but it frequently appears the same to the de- 
linquent himself. Affairs in that part of the mental 
life which controls conduct move along in ways that 
are not obviously explicable, and results ensue that 
are not wished for in the moments of more normal 



164 HONESTY 

self-control and self -understanding. In other words, 
even the child looks back on his conduct as the 
result of irrational and inexplicable impulse. "I 
don't know why I do such things. I really don't 
want to do them/' is another frequent type of state- 
ment. Sometimes the child himself feels that his 
actions and their underlying bases form a fair field 
for some investigatory procedure. 

Some Children Not Introspective. — However, 
in other cases of stealing by children, even where 
unsuspected mental experiences or mechanisms may 
be at fault, there is a total unconsciousness of the 
main fact. The child does what he does, as it were, 
and lets it go at that. There is not the amount of 
introspection or philosophizing that is indicated in 
the case cited in the preceding paragraph. But even 
so, most often the delinquent may be awakened by 
the experienced student of the subject to the real 
genesis of his trouble; apperceptions may be quickly 
developed and the beginnings brought to memory. 
The sudden understanding of the nature of his own 
delinquent tendencies sometimes clearly comes as a 
great surprise and there may be open-eyed astonish- 
ment. A new vision into the past is unexpectedly 
afforded. ''Now I see why I happened to do those 
things. I never thought of that before." Such new 
appreciations as these we have repeatedly heard 
voiced. 

Approach to Problem. — We shall have occa- 
sion often to come back to environmental conditions 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 165 

in considering various phases of our present topic, 
but even in speaking of the approach to the indi- 
vidual, environmental influences are to be taken ac- 
count of. We find, for instance, that where a fam- 
ily has taken the more rational attitudes toward life, 
and particularly toward conduct, even if the true 
sources of delinquency have never been tapped, the 
process is far easier than when the misdoing has 
been previously met in other ways. A mere dis- 
ciplinary standpoint toward their children on the 
part of the parents or other guardians is very apt to 
produce a state of mind that is anything but fa- 
vorable for working out the understanding for 
fundamental changes in traits of conduct. (I would 
that in courts of law, too, and in carrying out penal 
measures this deep psychological principle might be 
appreciated.) When a teacher, or even an expert 
student of delinquents, meets a problem in mis- 
conduct, special resistances and special difficulties 
are very apt to be found when the prior attitude un- 
der the parental roof has been that of retaliation and 
repression. A child then is very likely to be hard to 
get at, hard to manage, hard to understand. For- 
tunately sometimes, especially in the young child, 
even then a more kindly and more inquiring ap- 
proach may suddenly gain the confidence that has 
all along been necessary for amelioration of the de- 
linquent conduct. But in other instances it seems 
as if the child said to himself, here is another of 
those disciplinarians, here is more punishment com- 



166 HONESTY 

ing to me, and the best thing I can do is to say as 
little as possible. 

Advantages o£ Early Study. — Other things 
being equal, we find that the earlier there is expert 
investigation of such causes as we are now dealing 
with, the easier it will be to ascertain them. And 
this for two reasons: Memories of beginnings are 
then so much fresher, and in earlier years there is 
apt to be much more ingenuousness in regard to the 
whole matter of delinquency. Concerning the first 
of these two points, it is, of course, clear that as the 
years go on, stratum is superimposed on stratum in 
the mental and social experience of the individual, 
and that what earlier stood out with great sharp- 
ness may now be deeply buried. What was pre- 
viously near the surface one may now have to dig 
for. As a matter of fact, the memories of the first 
experiences vital for the development of delinquency 
may be relegated already to the subconscious life; 
they may not even have been remembered for years. 
This is a situation that practitioners of psycholog- 
ical analysis in the adult have most often to meet, 
and it obtains in some measure during even the 
years of childhood. And then not only is the more 
recent memory clearer, but for the events lately 
transpired there is the more chance of corroboration 
in many of the important details. Since so many of 
the mental experiences we deal with in this chapter 
involve some form of social intercourse, what is to 
be obtained in the way of verification of funda- 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 167 

mental issues may be most valuable. Then concern- 
ing the other point, namely, ingenuousness; this is 
proportionately greater in the young child. To be 
sure one occasionally finds inscrutability among chil- 
dren, and particularly among those who are victims 
of just such mental conflicts and repressions as we 
are concerned with here, but on the whole there is 
before mid-adolescence nothing like the wall of self- 
sufficiency and dislike for self-revealment that is 
shown among those who are approaching adult life. 

The general advantages of dealing with delin- 
quency during its early manifestations are so great 
for society that they form to my mind one of the 
greatest reasons for throwing vastly more emphasis 
on childhood delinquency and the possible agencies 
of amelioration than has ever been done before. Of 
course, one might ofifer many arguments in favor of 
this general proposition, but here is a specific issue 
not generally thought of; the much greater possi- 
bility of ascertaining fundamental causes during 
the years when the individual both can and is will- 
ing to recall them most usefully. 

Youthful Age of Beginning. — ^At this place we 
may say something about the extremely youthful 
age of beginnings of impulsions toward misconduct. 
I do not propose to introduce at this point in the 
discussion what may seem to be the extreme views 
of the psychoanalysists, even if the latter can ulti- 
mately prove their point, but we may safely deal 
with what we have been actually told by the child 



168 HONESTY 

I 

and had corroborated. It is a notable fact that even 

young children may have immensely significant ex- 
periences which, together with the emotions these 
experiences produce, may be kept secret and which, 
by virtue of the mechanisms that are set going, 
may cause and color actions for many years. One 
has known frequently of such typical occurrences, 
which will be outlined when we get to the more con- 
crete and definite points of this subject, coming into 
the life experience of a child as young as five years. 
We are inclined to believe, without such good proof, 
however, that similar effects may be produced even 
earlier. Dating back to six, seven and eight years 
we have many a history of events that have pro- 
duced, through their surreptitious effect on the 
child, years of suffering to himself and his friends. 
So when investigating the causes of delinquency at 
ten and twelve years, or later, it may be quite nec- 
essary to go back a considerable time before the be- 
ginnings are found. Perhaps the greatest contribu- 
tion that students of psychological analysis have 
made to knowledge is that the determinants of much 
that is important in human conduct are to be sought 
for in the experiences of the early years of child- 
hood. From our many studies we can thoroughly 
substantiate this point. 

Characteristics Correlated with Impulsions. 
— A few words are desirable concerning the char- 
acteristics of those who suffer from impulsions and 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 169 

obsessions. At the outset we should very specifically 
state that it is by no means merely those children 
who are weaklings whose conduct is determined by 
impulsions. We have seen splendid examples of 
young strength and activity who have been thus af- 
flicted. We have encountered many cases where 
the mental ability was well recognized as being above 
the average. This does not mean, however, that we 
should want to deny that those of poor physique 
and somewhat defective will and judgment are more 
prone to succumb to anti-social impulsions from 
many different causes. We are quite sure that un- 
fortunate mental habits — and these have much to do 
with impulsions — are more easily grown on a poor 
soil. Indeed the correlations are obvious; many 
writers have pointed out that delinquency, for any 
one of a number of reasons,^ is more apt to be en- 
gaged in by the human underling. But the point we 
want here to insist on is that dynamic connections 
between childhood experiences and the formation 
of delinquent tendencies may readily develop in an 
individual quite normal and, indeed, above the av- 
erage in ability. One could picture many cases of 
both boys and girls who are perfectly sound phys- 
ically, with good mental capacities, and who some- 
times are doing well in their work at school, whose 
tendencies to steal are fairly obsessional and have 
been built up on a foundation of some secret experi- 
ence that has long been overwhelming to their moral 
natures. 



170 HONESTY 

Proof of this Cause. — In studying and dis- 
criminating causes it is always fair to be asking for 
proofs. Particularly in such newer findings as these, 
where we are dealing with a subject quite foreign to 
the knowledge of those who have not kept pace with 
recent developments of psychological science, it is 
quite proper that corroborative evidence should be 
called for. We ourselves demanded this from the 
beginning of our studies and may state that for 
long we felt quite disinclined to accept this idea of 
impulsions based on early experience, but waited 
for individual cases through their outcome to dem- 
onstrate the fact. One was not satisfied with merely 
tracing back the memories of the individual to the 
point that he said was the starting place. One 
was not convinced, even with the addition of the 
outside testimony that was available in some in- 
stances. But what has appeared to clinch the truth 
of the existence of this type of genesis of delin- 

j quency has been the fact that after the mental states 

and the experiences which the child portrayed have 
been completely met by counteractivities there has 

N been complete cessation of the misconduct. Nothing 

can controvert this therapeutic result based on 
studies of causes. We have seen it happen now so 
frequently that the original doubt which we had 
has entirely disappeared. When one sees, as we 
now have seen many times, a child fairly notorious 
as a little thief quite desist from a career, immedi- 
ately following the remedial activities that we 



\ 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 171 

have just mentioned, then one has verification that 
steps out of the bounds of subjective phenomena. 
The child's analytic statement that some given ex- 
perience was the cause of the delinquent tendency, 
even though one ascertained this event to have taken 
place, is not nearly such good evidence as getting 
curative results from attack along the lines the 
stated cause suggested. 

Both Sexes Involved. — When studying sep- 
arate causative factors of delinquency we note that 
sometimes one sex is afflicted far more than the 
other. For instance, the love of adventure plays an 
important role in causing boys to steal, but in the 
case of girls there is comparatively little thieving 
to be attributed to this. Impulsions and obsessions, 
however, play a significant part in both sexes. Some 
of the most striking examples are seen in the cases 
of little girls who show a remarkable trend in their 
carrying out of bold stealing. This seems all the 
more remarkable because of the modesty and shrink- 
ing from street life and from boyish activities that 
we expect on the part of their sex. Until one has 
learned the details of some of those strange careers, 
where girls of even good families have for years 
stolen excessively and in such sly ways that they 
have not been detected, one does not realize how far 
impulsions and obsessions can carry an individual 
who IS not in the least to be reckoned as insane. It 
is hardly necessary to mention the cases of young 
women who engage in pathological stealing, or 



172 HONESTY 

''kleptomania/* During adult years excessive steal- 
ing in unnecessary ways is more frequent among 
females. I am not sure that anything more needs 
to be said about the different characteristics of the 
sexes in this matter, or about the differences in be- 
ginnings or in forms of treatment. The same gen- 
eral principles hold true for both boys and girls. 

Understanding Rather than Disciplining.— 
There is no phase of the newly developing science 
of conduct that so well illustrates the deep neces- 
sity for understanding the causes of improper be- 
havior as this subject of impulsions and obsessions. 
Nothing so directly shows the fundamental weak- 
ness as well as the practical failure of superficial 
treatment. Discipline by itself particularly is apt to 
accomplish nothing in these cases. The parent or 
direct disciplinarian, as we said in the introduction, 
who merely superimposes the command of negation, 
however well he enforces it, gets in the majority of 
these cases a reaction that fails to hit the mark. 
Inducing the conduct, there is something going on 
in the mind that is not to be checked by any mere 
command or expressed wish of the victim himself. 
The sooner guardians of childhood realize the fact 
that while allowing thoroughly for individual differ- 
ences, there are such things as laws of mind and 
mental mechanisms that persistently control con- 
duct, the better it will be for the development of 
character. Neither adjurations, nor threats, nor 
actual punishments can offer fundamental treatment 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 173 

if some hidden mental machinery has been set go- 
ing. Direct opposition to the misdoing turns out 
to be superficially inadequate. One must undermine 
the prime cause, not assail what is rooted on it. 
The failure of treatment attempted along ordinary 
lines affords another instance where therapy is pre- 
scribed without diagnosis of the essential ailment 
being made. But no amount of general statement on 
this point is so convincing as the study of concrete 
material, of living cases, where all sorts of en- 
deavors have been made without avail until the real 
source of the difficulty was ascertained. Then we 
do get clear showing of the real trouble and light is 
shed on the way out of the same. 

Psychological Principles Involved. — Still avoid- 
ing technical discussion as much as possible, it be- 
hooves us to deal in short with a few psychological 
principles that bear on this whole question of 
impulsions and obsessions. In the first place, mis- 
conduct arising from these sources shows more 
clearly than ever that conduct itself is merely the 
result and expression of mental activities. Here we 
have certain social behavior turned out as a product, 
and an unfortunate one, of definite psychological 
activities controlled according to mental laws. Some 
unfortunate experience, of the types that we shall 
presently mention, sets going in this undesirable 
way mental machinery that already exists. This 
is the fact that is so interesting. And the ma- 
chinery continues to act, even though it is clearly 



174 HONESTY, 

working against the interests of the individual as 
well as of society. It belongs to our practical dis- 
cussion to draw attention to the fact that these young 
delinquents frequently suffer repeatedly as the re- 
sults of their misdoing. They even suffer from the 
action of their own conscience as well as through 
external punishments inflicted, and yet they proceed 
on their path. In other words, the machinery does 
'not stop, although its output is quite undesired. 
Of course there is much analogy between this and 
.the various habit impulsions that students of con- 
duct in older people and neurologists come to know; 
about. 

Associational Dynamics.^ — ^Why does the men- 
tal machinery act in this way? Well, there are in- 
eradicable laws of mental life concerned. Given 
certain early experiences which had a highly emo- 
tional import, or which were directly associated with 
other experiences which had such import, and then 
let there be suppression of these in the inner con- 
sciousness, and we get as a result the type of miscon- 
iduct we are now studying. Afterward there may 
I be breakings out every now and again, the immedi- 
iate cause of which is not always clear. In some 
cases we learn that from time to time there has been 
a sudden unconscious renewal of association proc- 
j esses with a starting up of the old machinery, a forc- 
ing into action of what has become suppressed 
tendencies. The so-called impulse starts up as the 
[result of some immediate although unrecognized 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 175 

stimulus. The forces at work being invisible and 
having little to do with the usual causes of ordinary 
action, what pulls the trigger, as it were, is not to be 
known without study of all that has gone before in 
the making up of tendency to action. It is very 
true that this mechanism of conduct introduces un- 
usual elements. The individual himself, if you 
question him, feels it to be strange. He often is 
unconscious of what starts this chain of sugges- 
tions or associations that lead to the overpowering 
impulse. "I don't know what comes over me," is 
often the victim's expression. 

Emotions at the Core. — ^There can be no doubt 
that a large share of these unfortunate impulses 
originate from elements in the emotional life — that 
part of our mental being which gives strength and 
force to our ideas and behavior. One never fails 
to ascertain that the original experience which re- 
sults in the formation of the character tendencies 
we are discussing had a deep emotional significance. 
Now in an emotion suppressed, as all these early 
force-producing experiences unfortunately are — 
that is, kept as a secret from natural guardians — 
there is always a reactive tendency. The only way 
to avoid some sort of consequences is for there to 
be proper escapement at once of the emotion-gen- 
erated forces. If the whole affair is suppressed it 
remains as a force producer from that time until 
there is possibly relief some day by conscious break- 
ing up of the whole mechanism. Not only the ex- 



176 HONESTY 

perience that originally was the central focus of 
the emotion, but also experiences that were im- 
mediately contiguous may be endowed with this 
same power and act through the laws of association. 
The fact that there is a stealing impulse may not in- 
dicate that the original experience was centered on 
stealing. Sometimes the main trouble has been with 
something that was far more significant to the indi- 
vidual than stealing, but stealing was learned about 
at the same time, or from the same person, or was 
associated in some other way so that it was readily 
recalled by the laws of mental association. The 
main point is that the original set of experiences 
came into the life of the child with an unwonted 
impact. The child then did not have at its service 
the full confidence of a parent, and immediately 
forced into the background of mental life as a secret 
all that it had learned. From this hidden center 
there develops from time to time forces that show 
themselves in conduct. All of this becomes clear in 
the light of concrete data obtained from many cases. 
Preventive Treatment. — If there is any one 
lesson that is worth while learning either from these 
more general considerations or from the study of 
actual material, it is that parents and other guard- 
ians must have more awareness of their children's 
experiences, mental needs and the laws of their 
mental life. The hundreds of times that we have 
seen harm follow in the wake of children's experi- 
ences that were not known to their elders have led 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 177 

us to be vastly impressed by the needs of the full- 
est confidences on all occasions and on all subjects 
between child and guardian. There is the most 
definite necessity for little people telling what they 
have seen and what they have done. For them to 
bottle up within themselves affairs of importance 
is a dangerous proceeding. We should most ear- 
nestly counsel that children should be accustomed 
to go over the items of their daily life with their 
guardians that there may be no hidden knowledge 
to be dwelled on in morbid fashion. Of all forms 
of prevention of delinquency I know of nothing 
comparable to the confidences and counsels between 
elders and children. 

Relation of Sex Experiences to Stealing. — 
The nature of experiences that are going to be 
most provocative of trouble are those that have 
emotional context, and these are, for the most part, 
gained with children w^ho are themselves delinquents. 
Sex matters, w^hich all through life have greater 
emotional bearing than any other ideas or activities, 
naturally disturb the child more than anything else. 
It is these experiences which one finds more fre- 
quently than anything else at the basis of the de- 
linquent impulses that form the subject of our 
present chapter. It is according to the laws of life 
itself that this should be so. In the light of all these 
facts, it behooves parents to be especially on the 
lookout for clandestine experiences which their chil- 
dren may have and may suppress. 



178 HONESTY 

Proper Purveyors of Sex Knowledge. — ^There 
are many reasons offered from the side of decency 
and esthetics why parents should be the purveyors 
of sex knowledge to their children. We can sug- 
gest an additional argument from our present dis- 
cussion concerning the indirectly baneful influences 
of secret knowledge of sex matters. Prior to be- 
coming a student of delinquency I had supposed, 
as others do, that the effect of surreptitious sex 
knowledge was always to be found in the world of 
sex things, but, in accordance with the psychological 
mechanisms outlined above, one finds the influence 
of such secrets spreading virulently over into other 
fields. Indeed, this is one of the cardinal points 
insisted on by students of psychological analysis, 
namely, that knowledge of sex affairs improperly 
gained, and with or without bad sex habits, may lead 
to the most untoward results in the life and conduct 
of the individual, perhaps years afterward. There 
is no question about the accuracy of the facts; there 
is no doubt about the possibilities of prevention. 
The class of readers to whom this work is addressed, 
while not qualified to treat these technical phases of 
an already established delinquent career, are com- 
petent to deal with the preventive aspects of this 
trouble. If they have not already sufficient prepara- 
tion, it should be their business above everything to 
fit themselves to obviate the effect of influences 
that may be so harmful in their children's lives. 



CHAPTER XII 

IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS CONTINUED 

THE next step in our exposition of impulsions 
and obsessions as related to stealing is the pres- 
entation of illustrative facts taken from case his- 
tories. In doing this we propose to offer only such 
observations as may fairly represent the nature of 
the subject under discussion. To this end we shall 
not give any of the highly exaggerated cases that 
are only occasionally met with. To be sure, no two 
individuals and no two careers are exactly alike, but 
it is remarkable how conduct started from repressed 
mental life in childhood tends to run in the same 
grooves. So it is quite possible, if one avoids pres- 
entation of the more extraordinary cases, to deal 
with material that is thoroughly typical. 

Differences Caused by Varieties of Personality 
and Environment. — It need hardly be said that 
effects of environmental conditions are always to 
be found in these cases, and beyond the primary 
fact that the differences in nature of individuali- 
ties cause mental reactions to differ, variations of 
environment are always at work to give us still fur- 
ther chance of getting differences in the stealing 

179 



180 HONESTY 

arising from impulsions. Probably in the same way 
the genesis in experience of no two cases could be 
found to be exactly alike. The reader can easily 
picture variations on the causes and careers which 
we give. It also may be easily conceived how the 
type of conduct we are at present dealing with may 
go on to develop into a full-fledged career of crim- 
inalism; the individual showing tendencies rooted 
deeper and deeper through habit formation. With 
this preliminary statement to give some indication 
of the limitations of our discussion of cases, we 
may offer the following studies selected from our 
large material, in illustration of the general prin- 
ciples given in the last chapter. 

The Case of Celia. — We may first take a case 
seen about four years ago, so that the time elapsed 
may be sufficient to show any change of character 
tendencies following the study made at that time. 
Celia, eleven years of age when we first saw her, 
was a bright- faced, responsive, remarkably straight- 
backed, prim little girl. One could hardly believe 
the long story of her peculations recounted by her 
parents. In fact, one found it advisable to gain 
some knowledge of the parents before any fair esti- 
mate of the whole situation could be made. The 
mother can be described as quiet and orderly, an act- 
ive housekeeper, who had been doing her best to 
look properly after the mental and moral sides of 
her daughter's development. There were no other 
children. The mother in early life had been a school- 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS ISl 

teacher. The father was a clerk in a large establish- 
ment where only the possession of a good character 
would have enabled him to hold his position. His 
salary was sufficient to keep the family comfortably 
and, indeed, they could afford little luxuries. In 
summer, they w^ere accustomed to spend their vaca- 
tions in a small country town where Celia's great- 
aunt lived. Occasionally the little girl had been 
left there for weeks at a time because she liked it 
so much and it was evidently so much better for 
her health than city life. The family connections 
on both sides were honorable and moderately suc- 
cessful people; there were no traces of defects in 
heredity. 

The developmental history, obtained from the in- 
telligent parents, who had been medically well ad- 
vised, was negative in import for us. The child 
was rather frail, but of an active and responsive dis- 
position. In school she had been regarded earlier 
as quick-minded, but in the last year or two there 
had been a falling off in her school work. Both the 
mother and the teacher noticed this. After un- 
successful attempts to combat it, they wondered if 
it was not due to physical conditions. However, we 
could discover nothing of significance in this direc- 
tion; Celia was of a physical type that is apt to do 
exceedingly well mentally. She had a splendidly 
shaped head and her alert active manner betokened 
energy. On mental tests we found her ability 
somewhat in advance of the normal. There was no 



182 HONESTY 

question but that she had the background for doing 
much better in school than she was doing. She was 
in the fifth grade, but her parents thought she 
might have been in the sixth or seventh, had she 
exerted herself. The report from teachers in regard 
to general deportment was decidedly good and ac- 
corded with what her parents stated. In general 
she was obedient, very modest, cleanly, and usually 
a good-tempered child. She lied only about her de- 
linquencies. 

The main trouble with this little girl was her 
misconduct, which took the following extraordinary 
forms : For about three years she had been stealing. 
Concerning the number of times she had taken 
things, her parents would not venture an estimate. 
They thought that it would be conservative to say 
that she had stolen on a hundred occasions. She 
had taken things from her family, from the gar- 
ments or handbags of visitors at her home, from 
neighbors' houses, from grocery stores, and on one 
occasion she had taken a little necklace from a 
jewelry shop. Some of the things she had taken 
she could utilize and others she could not; some of 
the things she probably wanted, and some evidently 
were not in the least desired by her. The money 
she had taken she had spent by herself or with other 
school children for soda-water and candy. Her par- 
ents Were in utter despair about the matter. They 
had disciplined her in various ways and even se- 
verely whipped her for it. At times they had made 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 183 

her return the things, and had attempted to improve 
her morals in every way. By this time her thefts 
had cost them a sum they could not afford. Her 
last misconduct had been a little bit w^orse than any- 
thing else, because she had stolen the teacher's 
pocketbook and been disgraced before the whole 
school. 

The parents were quite at a loss for an explana- 
tion; they told how Celia always seemed to feel 
sorry after her misdeeds and continually stated she 
did not know why she did these things. They had 
gone into the question from the standpoint of 
heredity and prenatal impressions because they knew 
of nothing else to look for by way of causation. It 
seems that Celia's father soon after his marriage 
was much wrought up by the stealing of a fellow 
clerk. There had been a great deal of talk about it 
in the office and it was a question as to how the 
innocent ones should be able to clear themselves, 
and later there was much worry, particularly on 
the part of Celia's father, about doing the right 
thing for the embezzler and his family. Celia's 
mother ,was much concerned about the affair and 
it was at this time that she was pregnant. Celia's 
conduct made them hark back to this affair of 
eleven years previously, and it seemed to them that 
this was the only possible explanation. The preg- 
nancy was thoroughly normal from the physical 
standpoint and the child was healthy in every way 
when bom, and progressed in quite the usual way. 



184 HONESTY 

We set about the study in this case after ascer- 
taining all of the above facts that showed so little 
variation from the normal. It became a question 
of genetics. Why did this little girl begin her career 
of stealing and what was there back of her im- 
pulsions ? That they were impulsions we had no more 
doubt than had her parents, after talking to Celia 
for a little while. She told us that she really did not 
want to steal, that she was very sorry afterward, 
that she had stolen so many times that she could not 
remember them all, that it was always the result of 
an idea that suddenly sprang into her mind and she 
did not know how or why. 

It is only fair to say that this girl from the first 
showed every mark of having been rationally 
treated. She had been brought to us with the 
straightforward understanding that we were going 
to try to find out why she stole. Celia had acquiesced 
in coming, and there was no deception in the mat- 
ter. She had also heard that if she did not show bet- 
ter conduct immediately the school authorities were 
going to invoke the agencies of the court, but, after 
all, such threats had been made before. We saw 
that, in general, Celia had been dealt with as a ra- 
tional human being, and had been taught that effects 
imply causes. She was also accustomed to the or- 
dinary confidences with her mother. The parents' 
explanation to her of the part I was to play was 
quite sufficient to establish friendliness between us. 
I call attention to this because in this particular in- 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 185 

stance there was almost no trouble in breaking down 
emotional or recalcitrant oppositions to our inquiry. 
In fact, the affair turned out to be very simple ; the 
only technic involved was that of getting in the 
quickest way at the genesis of her impulsions. 

We very quickly found out that Celia had met a 
whole world of experiences of which her parents 
knew nothing. They were astounded later when we 
told them. This new field was very easily opened 
up by our inquiry concerning whom she first knew 
to have stolen. Without the slightest hesitation she 
told about a certain little girl who lived in the coun- 
try town where they spent their vacations. This 
girl was two or three years older than Celia and evi- 
dently had been the leader in their companionship. 
It was in the summer three years previously, as 
nearly as I could safely calculate, when Celia dis- 
covered this girl, Matilda, to be a thief. She took 
change from her mother and also purloined eatables 
and other things from stores. Dropping this line 
of inquiry we then asked Celia if any thoughts both- 
ered her. She denied this, but showed open-eyed 
astonishment at our query. Going back to Matilda 
we asked for information as to her morality in 
other ways, and obtained the answer that gave us 
the clew to the whole situation. Yes, Matilda was 
the person from whom Celia had first obtained sex 
knowledge. Yes, it was true that these things did 
much bother our little girl and that they frequently 
came up in her mind — the ideas of these things and 



186 HONESTY 

bad words, too. Now, it must be remembered that 
Celia's mother had informed us that the child was 
remarkably innocent in these directions; she had 
never heard her utter a word indicating knowledge 
along these lines, and she was scrupulously partic- 
ular about exposing her person — remarkably so, it 
seemed to us, since she objected to letting her mother 
see her undress. 

The above was found out in one or two interviews. 
In the course of further study carried on by us and 
by her parents, who were thoroughly willing to co- 
operate, we found out the details of the whole af- 
fair, exploring them for the very rational purpose 
of so knowing them that they might be directly and 
completely assailed. That summer, Matilda, who 
belonged to a slattern and notoriously careless fam- 
ily, initiated Celia in sex things. She offered the 
child such fragmentary bits of information as she 
possessed and gave her a new vocabulary of words, 
about which Celia had only the barest hints of 
meaning. She told her something about sex prac- 
tises, but it is doubtful if these ever had any entice- 
ment for Celia; it was in the world of ideas that 
Celiacs repressions and conflicts arose. She knew 
that Matilda perhaps indulged in secret practises and 
perhaps enjoyed herself with boys; the girl at least 
boasted of it. 

Our investigation concerning what in the mental 
content, particularly in her mental association proc- 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 187 

esses, could possibly lead to any impulse to steal, 
showed that it was through the flashing into her 
mind of the ideas or the words that Matilda had 
taught her. We obtained an ingenuous account of 
the struggle against these thoughts, and all uncon- 
sciously there came out very clearly the mental mech- 
anisms by which the impulse to steal was developed. 
Something in daily life led to a flashing into mind 
of these sex ideas. Celia, through her mother's 
example of reticence on these matters, felt that they 
must be altogether wrong and were to be suppressed, 
and yet they represented a wonder-world that ex- 
isted, but about which she had obtained no other in- 
formation. She at once asked her mother in a mild 
w^ay and was told that when she got older it would 
be time enough for her to know about such things. 
So she felt she must down these thoughts when they 
involuntarily appeared in her mind. For all the 
world she would not think of doing any such things 
as Matilda had suggested; she knew these must be 
exceedingly wrong; yes, much worse than stealing. 
In the case of such a young child as Celia it is 
usually difficult to find introspective ability enough 
to trace the direct connections in mental associations 
between the repressed idea and the misconduct. We 
did find, however, in one or two instances that a 
kind of mental struggle about sex thoughts had pre- 
ceded a theft. It was so one day recently, when 
Celia was at home reading and came across some 



188 HONESTY 

names that at once brought to mind tHe group in 
the Httle town and the boy with whom Matilda had 
boasted she had enjoyed illicit pleasures. Celia 
could remember that recent event in mental life very 
definitely, and also that she thought of how bad it 
was, and that she very soon afterward took money 
from her mother's purse and went out to spend it. 

However, in this case, one got no such clear 
tracing of the associational mental chain as in some 
older individuals we have studied. But the general 
fact of the genesis in such a typical dual situation — 
the knowledge of stealing arising contiguously to 
another mental experience that had a deep emo- 
tional significance and which was repressed — is no- 
where better brought out. In spite of all her pun- 
ishments and warnings, the girl herself, strangely 
enough, felt that her greatest difficulty was not 
about the thieving, but about the other hidden affair 
for which she had never been reprimanded in the 
least. Celiacs point of view was taken as the true 
one, and the parents were intelligently willing to be- 
lieve that it was only on this ground that her mis^ 
conduct was to be therapeutically met. 

The outcome of this case would go much further 
toward proving to the general observer the facts of 
the beginnings that we have outlined, or at least 
the facts of the mechanisms involved, than anything 
else. However, the final outcome is always largely 
dependent on the treatment that can be carried 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 189 

out and on the intelligence of those who have 
control of the child, as well as on the original 
discovery of the essential facts. Celia was handled 
in a firm way by the good sense of the parents who 
closely followed the suggestions we gave. They 
knew of Matilda's reputation for petty stealing, but 
had never for a moment supposed that for the short 
time in the summer during which Celia was in Ma- 
tilda's neighborhood, the older child could have had 
any such influence. In fact, during my inquiry with 
them into Celia's previous companionship they had 
even forgotten about Matilda. But now with un- 
usually good discernment they were able to see how 
it might have happened and were competent to un- 
derstand the emotional complications that might 
have set going Celia's impulses. They went still 
further into all sorts of details, as I directed them, 
and obtained even more satisfactory corroboration 
of the original incident. Then, still following our 
suggestions, they obtained from Celia an account of 
the vSpecific words and ideas that recurrently 
flashed in her mind. They explained these to her 
with the idea of dissolving the element of clan- 
destine mystery. Through the exercise of good 
judgment they were completely successful in this 
and, with a thorough bringing to light of the whole 
situation, there came about an immediate cessation 
of Celia's impulses to steal. We are informed by 
these thoroughly reliable parents, who brought the 
problem to us in the first place, that there has been 



190 HONESTY 

complete relief from the trouble over the four years 
that have elapsed. 

The Case of Enos. — ^Another case that illus- 
trates several different features of our problem is 
the following: Enos, a boy of twelve years, was 
brought to us because of his frequent stealing. He 
had also run away from home a couple of times. 
However, these escapades had proved anything but 
enjoyable. On one occasion he had been picked up 
by the police with his feet in a half- frozen condi- 
tion. It was generally understood that he ran away 
because he had stolen. It was on the advice of an 
humane policeman, who had found the boy asleep in 
a hallway, that the mother brought him to us. As 
the officer said, it seemed there must be something 
the matter with a boy who would leave such a nice 
home. The mother then wondered if he was men- 
tally subnormal. It was only his behavior, however, 
that she could offer as any indication of this. He 
had been progressing in school fairly well. 

The history that the mother gave included as the 
main item the fact that he was an adopted boy. 
He had been afforded a good home and had never 
been ill or backward in any way. She stated that 
she did not wish the facts of his parentage to be re- 
vealed because she had always kept it from him. 
They had adopted him as an infant, parentage un- 
known, when they had no children of their own. A 
few years later two children were born to them, but 
they endeavored to make no distinction between him 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 191 

and them. Lately, on account of his bad behavior, 
the mother confessed they did not feel so kindly to- 
ward the boy, and wondered if in the future they 
would continue to conceal the facts of his birth. He 
was a pleasant and normal boy until about a year 
previous, when he began to show character changes. 
Since that time he had on several occasions taken 
considerable sums of money, forty or fifty dollars 
at a time, and once had made off to another city. 
On this last occasion he had run away with only a 
small amount, and had seen much hardship in the 
week that he was gone. Indeed, it could not be as- 
certained that after any of his thieving he had much 
pleasure. The adopted parents wondered if he 
could be the child of a criminal and whether innate 
hereditary traits were showing themselves. The 
adopted father had about lost patience with the boy 
and advised sending him to an institution. 

This was another case where the child met the 
inquirer with the utmost frankness, after the situa- 
tion was made clear to him that it was an inquiry 
instituted for his own welfare. Previously he had 
been met with severe disciplinary measures, whip-: 
ping and other punishments. Tests soon convinced 
us that it was as the parents said : there was no in- 
dication of any abnormality except in the way of 
behavior. General physical conditions were good, 
although there had been neglect of moderate eye 
strain and of large tonsils. However, neither of 
these could be thought of as being causes of the 



192 HONESTY 

misconduct. On mental examination he showed 
himself fair enough in abihty, although not brilliant. 
He had been given common school advantages. In 
general temperament it was easy to see that we had 
to do with a highly sensitive boy, and this was all 
the more interesting to us because of the opposite 
temperament of his adopted parents. The father, 
we found, was a big blustering business man, a mod- 
erate drinker, a man of little patience, who prided 
himself on paying no attention to trifles. His wife, 
while perhaps not being quite of the same sort, had 
adapted herself to the home situation, and was fond 
of the hearty side of life. Undoubtedly they had 
provided this boy with plenty of material comforts, 
but as far as we could make out they had made not 
the clightest attempt to understand his nature. 

When the boy realized our desire to be of service 
to him he seemed to feel no aversion whatever to 
bringing forward all that he knew and felt. In his 
mind there was a strange mix-up of ideas concern- 
ing human relationships. In the first place. It seems 
that in the neighborhood there had been some little 
knowledge or suspicion that these people were not 
his true parents. The "toughesf of his comrades, 
a boy who stole, told Enos that the woman who 
called him her child was not his mother. This fol- 
lowed on some crude teaching by this other boy 
concerning marriage and birth and illicit sex affairs. 
Enos indignantly told us about this first information 
on these points, and how he had kept it to him- 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 193 

self. The new idea in regard to his parentage he 
revolved over and over in his mind. He gradually 
conceived many reasons for believing the fact to be 
as the boy had stated. He saw many differences 
between the treatment afforded him and that of the 
other children. He interpreted the general indiffer- 
ence of the father toward him as being caused by 
the fact that he was not really their son. He felt 
himself, he naively said to us, not to belong to that 
family. He long ago began to plan a career for 
himself away from them. 

His bitterest thoughts were about the deception, 
for he was convinced that it was a deception that 
they had been practising on him. He had little to 
do with his boy-informant, but when he saw him it 
renewed, worse than ever, his mental conflict. All 
told, Enos gave us one of the strongest stories of 
mental upheaval and unrest that we have heard. His 
sensitiveness toward these aspects of life really be- 
spoke fine mental qualities. 

The stealing was the outcome of an impulse to do 
something that would get him away from his pres- 
ent unsatisfactory situation. He did not know how 
else to do it. We were very much amused to learn 
that he had deliberately obtained detective stories 
that he thought might contain accounts of crimi- 
nal careers that would indicate the first steps neces- 
sary for a boy to break away from home. He felt 
that it would be an unlawful thing for him to do, and 
he would thereupon belong to the world of robbers 



194 HONESTY 

and bandits ; so he would better learn something of 
their life. His suggestion toward all this seems to 
have come from the fact that the boy who first de- 
stroyed his peace was himself a young thief. Al- 
though Enos, of course, could not depict clearly his 
mental processes to us, yet it was plain to see how 
his impulses arose from this first development of 
deep dissatisfaction. His misconduct was always a 
direct reaction to his mental conflicts* 

Discovering all this, we had to meet the circum- 
stances in an entirely different manner from that in 
the case of Celia, cited above. The adopted mother 
of Enos, finding out that he had such affairs in his 
mind, said, ^'Well, since he knows it already we will 
have to tell him," but either she did not grasp the 
full import of his mental difficulties or would not 
take the trouble to go into them. Beyond mention- 
ing the real facts of his parentage no confidences 
were established between Enos and his foster par- 
ents; the father would not be bothered with such 
matters. The boy was tried at home again, but with 
the same results; it was not long before he stole 
again, and after having spent his money in another 
town, walked from one place to another. His guard- 
ian now refused to have him at home any longer, 
and he was sent by private arrangement to a mili- 
tary school — the essential treatment that we had in 
mind never having been ^carried out. 

The Case of Agatha. — That stealing results 
from impulsions which may begin very early in 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 195 

life we have abundant evidence. At the risk of cit- 
ing a case that may seem to be extreme we offer the 
following: A little girl of seven years, whom we 
will call Agatha, was studied by us because of her 
many thieving escapades. For over a year these 
had been strangely numerous and had involved 
stealing from home, neighbors and even shops. 
Many times articles taken from other houses had 
been found hidden in her room. The parents, highly 
cultivated people, were at an absolute loss to know 
what to do about the matter. Their punishments 
had been, at times, unusually severe. The little girl 
was active physically and precocious mentally. She 
came from decidedly intellectual but rather neurotic 
stock on both sides, but had showed no signs 
of any nervous trouble herself. The family felt dis- 
graced although every one recognized the child as 
too young to be responsible. The stealing had be- 
come a nuisance and people refused to allow her in 
their houses. The parents put the question point- 
blank at us: "What can be the matter with this 
child; there must be something wrong?'' 

Possession of remarkable powers of memory and 
analysis on the part of this little girl enabled us, by 
paths that her cultivated parents had never dreamed 
of pursuing, to discover rapidly the trouble. We 
were fortunately able to get all the basic facts 
corroborated. When only about five and one- 
half years old this child had lived next door 
to a small boy, coming also from a very good 



196 HONESTY 

family, wHo in a perfectly childish way had 
introduced her to sex things. In fact, during 
one summer a little coterie of children, being 
allowed to play unsupervised for long hours in a 
summer-house, had drawn one another into affairs 
of sex life. It had started with the innocent play of 
keeping house. What they ultimately did in play 
they were too ashamed to mention to their parents. 
The little boy who was the play-paramour of 
Agatha was himself accustomed to steal. Indeed, 
she very definitely told us that before the summer- 
house affair she had known him to steal ; as a matter 
of fact, he had stolen things from her. (This was 
corroborated by her parents.) It is quite doubtful if 
this little girl ever gave way to childish sex affairs 
to the extent that the others in the same crowd did ; 
for some reason she early recognized them as im- 
proper, although she had had no teaching on this 
point. Soon afterward, however, she began stealing 
in that same neighborhood, and later when her par- 
ents moved to another city she continued her mis- 
conduct in the most excessive fashion, as we have 
indicated above. We were told by Agatha in the 
clearest terms about how the thought of that boy 
continually came to her, a-nd of what he did there 
in the summer-house, and of how he stole. She in- 
sisted on the badness of the sex affairs, but seemed 
to think the stealing not in the same category. It 
proved, thus, to be a case that never could have been 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 197 

handled properly without discovery of the genesis of 
the steaHng impulse. 

Chronic Stealing by Adolescents. — ^The rare 
instances of excessive stealing by adolescent girls, 
such as are known occasionally to high-school teach- 
ers, have often such a background as we have sug- 
gested in the preceding discussion, but, of course, 
there are many variations possible. One of the most 
remarkable facts about such cases is that the indi- 
vidual sometimes has been stealing for years; she 
may have taken scores of articles from stores and 
other places and never been detected. We have 
come to know intimately some young people who 
have had careers not excelled for repetition of mis- 
conduct by inmates of penitentiaries. It is not 
within our province here to give any of these cases 
of so-called ''kleptomania,'' because they belong 
more to the field of criminalistics. But yet every 
now and again such a case is first discovered by a 
school-teacher or parent and the general facts should 
be a matter of common knowledge. 

Rarely it is a boy who is a victim of these impul- 
sions, but more often a girl. The basis of the trou- 
ble is certainly to be found in most cases by study- 
ing the mental mechanisms in just such ways as I 
have already described. Of course this is not nearly 
so easy a matter as with the younger children, but 
yet it is surprising to find that many of these older 
misdoers feel the need of being understood and 



198 HONESTY 

helped. They have conflicts, repressions, feelings of 
dissatisfaction and restlessness, followed by the giv- 
ing way to impulsions. Penitence often ensues in 
full measure. 

Self-Knowledge o£ the Trouble and Penitence. 
— We knew one high-school boy whose general 
character was of the best; it was hard for his family 
to understand why he stole. He said to us at first, 
'T steal because it makes me feel good to steal, but I 
am terribly sorry afterward.'' After a time we dis- 
covered that he himself thought that the real trouble 
was not his stealing, but was the other things that 
he had on his mind. We have known of several 
thieving girls who, during their periods of penitence, 
refunded in some way the things stolen. One high- 
school girl worked during her vacation to get a sum 
that she returned as conscience money to some 
business firms who did not even know that she had 
stolen from them. She, too, said that the stealing 
was only a small part of her trouble; she was fight- 
ing off her ideas along other lines. 

Characteristics of the Continued Cases. — 
These impulsions may be continued over a number 
of years. If the individuals are sharp and clever 
they may never be caught and classified as offenders. 
And the impulsions may be conquered with the on- 
coming of adult strength of will, or through new 
experiences that may enable them to overcome the 
previous sources of trouble. Those individuals who 
carry their stealing impulses into adult life, or those 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 199 

who develop them during later life, belong nearly 
always to some pathological category, and are fit 
subjects for treatment by the medicopsychologist. 
Once more we may say that to get at the background 
of these cases in older individuals, sometimes it is 
necessary to give many hours of study over a period 
of months. 



CHAPTER XIII 

IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS CONCLUDED 

IN the examples given above, where stealing re- 
sults from impulsions, the delinquency is not 
indulged in so much for itself as in expression of a 
tendency that somehow has been aroused. In 
many instances, this particular form af misbehavior 
seems to be vicarious, that is, it appears to take the 
place of some other delinquency, contemplation of 
which is in the mental background. The misconduct 
engaged in figures as of minor importance, but pre- 
vents the appearance of some greater form of de- 
linquency. Occasionally the offender explains some- 
thing of this himself, but generally the transference 
of impulse is not consciously framed as such. It 
seems to be much more an affair of subconsciously 
following a law of mental life, rather than of any 
conscious attempt at suppressing one of two given 
evil tendencies. It is not the very rare case that 
exhibits this background for impulsions; we have 
already seen scores of individuals in whom the tend- 
ency to steal seemed clearly to be the product of a 
mental mechanism that was thwarting still more 
undesirable possibilities. 

200 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 201 

Habit-Formation, Emotions, etc., Back of Im- 
pulsions. — But there are several other elements 
entering into the formation of impulsions and obses- 
sions. The laws and forces of habit formation have 
their place in renewing and recreating delinquent 
impulsions. Probably the surprising vigor with 
which the impulse to steal reappears in the mind of 
some is due to the setting with which the stealing 
originally came into experience. It is the old story 
of the forceful parts of mental life, those that 
have most to do with impelling action, being origi- 
nally connected with strong emotional conditions. 
Think of the first experiences with delinquency, such 
as many a child has recounted to us. The boy with 
throbbing heart and dry throat successfully steals. 
If he has good memory and introspective powers he 
can tell of the great feeling of relief that safely 
coming through danger afforded him then. He was 
afraid he was going to be caught, and he was not; 
the contrast between his relief and his fear made a 
deep impression. Now if we follow paths of even 
simple and non-technical psychological analysis, we 
may learn from the child that hereafter any percep- 
tion or suggestion that tends to bring to mind this 
original situation is likely to develop an impulse to- 
ward repetition of the bad conduct. This is impul- 
sion, then, based largely on the forces that habit 
formation represent. (See our chapter on Habits.) 
The process develops along several different lines; 
some of the simplest types of it we may outline. 



202 HONESTY 

The Sudden Impulse to Steal — The Basis of It. 

- — Children whose steaHngs are to be classed as 
sneak-thieving often may be found to show some- 
thing of the above mental mechanism. This is worth 
going into in each case because of the practical value 
for treatment of discovering just what parts of 
mental life are involved. Some children steal only 
because of the perceived opportunity; here comes 
before them a situation that resembles one with 
which they have had experience previously. They 
have not dwelled on the tempting object, nor con- 
ceived any desire for it previously ; it is simply the 
perception of something which reminds them that 
here is a chance. Again comes, perhaps, the quick- 
ened pulse and the rush of blood to the head, and the 
seizure of the thing perhaps not even half wanted or 
desired. Children who react thus declare often 
plainly that they are not in the least going about the 
world looking for things to steal; they may be ut- 
terly at a loss to explain why they suddenly give 
way to this conduct; they will tell you of the after- 
math of sinking feeling and fear. There is undoubt- 
edly in these cases sudden renewal of some old men- 
tal imagery that spurs to action. 

Case of Sudden Impulses. — I remember one 
boy who has made a fine stand against his stealing 
impulsions. Worst of all for him to conquer was 
the temptation to take pennies from unprotected 
news-stands. During some moments of high emo- 
tional excitement with other boys he had been 



'" IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 203 

shown the possibilities of stealing in this way. 
From that time on he found it difficult to pass a 
stand where pennies were lying. He never premedi- 
tated any such thefts. It never occurred to him until 
he was there on the spot and saw the money. The 
few times he gave in he felt deep chagrin afterward, 
and states that he wanted to go back to replace what 
he had taken, but was, of course, afraid to do so. 
(This replacing of goods taken is no unusual phe- 
nomenon in children, and the fact goes to illuminate 
our statement about uncontrolled impulses.) Years 
afterward this fellow, now a young man, reiterated 
his earlier statement about his temptations and went 
over with us again the struggle he had had to over- 
come them. 

Value of Attacking the Specifically Responsi- 
ble Feature. — Such a specific feature of the back- 
ground of delinquency as is indicated in the above 
case must be appreciated and directly met if there is 
to be any short cut toward checking the stealing 
impulse. The boy of whom I speak had no one close 
to him who could directly face the situation, and he 
had long to work with difficulty alone against a men- 
tal force that could have been much weakened had 
some one taken hold of him in the right way. One 
has known parents who, when the detailed facts of 
the case were made known to them, no longer felt 
satisfied w^ith the time-honored methods of pleading, 
scolding, or punishment, but attempted on a rational 
basis to overcome the specific difficulty. If pennies 



204 HONESTY 

on news-stands were the hindrance to this boy's sal- 
vation, could not this have been overcome if he had 
had a Httle stand of his own? To modify the under- 
lying phases of mental life by creating new expe- 
riences is the thing. 

Constructive Treatment Through Money Al- 
lowance, etc. — Sometimes with better training a 
slight amount of indulgence is warranted. The 
child who takes small amounts in the home may not 
do so if he has an allowance or a purse of his own. 
I have been much struck at times by the amount of 
trouble and expense a family may go to in making 
complaint to a juvenile court of a child's stealing lit- 
tle sums at home, while it never occurred to them 
that half the amount they so expended might pre- 
vent the child from thieving for a long period. (At 
this point we may venture to call attention to what 
we have said, in our chapter on Age of Moral De- 
velopment, about the rise of respect for property.) 
It often seems to me that, in the face of how others 
in the family carelessly handle and spend money, it 
is not to be wondered at that the young individual 
helps himself to what may be found in purses or in 
more conspicuous places. To start a bank-account 
and to teach the value of accumulation and rational 
expenditure is a great preventive. There is much 
room for a more satisfactory attitude concerning 
these points on the part of guardians of children. 

Pleasurable Excitement from the Impulse to 
Steal. — In considering this matter of impulsions 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 205 

I do not wish to minimize the certain elements of 
pleasure that come through excitement, even the 
excitement of danger. We know full well that type 
of boy, and sometimes girl, who enjoys the thrill 
that even fear affords. This occurs not only in the 
robust, but also in those whose physical frailties 
would cause one not to suspect such traits. The im- 
pulse developed in this way is in the nature of a re- 
sponse to a challenge : Here is a difficult thing to do, 
suppose I see if I can do it. But we treat of this in 
our special chapter on Adventure. 

Mental Imagery Causing Impulsions. — ^The 
place that mental imagery plays in developing im- 
pulsions seems to be very little understood. It is a 
field that might well be cultivated by psychological 
research. The idea of stealing and the impulse to- 
ward it clearly may arise in the mind as a matter of 
mental representation, imagery, as the psychologist 
calls it. The technical phases of that subject we 
need not even suggest here, and our illustrations of 
the point may center about the best understood phe- 
nomenon, namely, visual imagery, the mental seeing 
of pictures. From time to time we have been sur- 
prised to hear that the child's ideas about stealing 
come to him in the form of pictures. He sees in his 
mind's eye something that he has before witnessed, 
and instantly the impulse to action is set going. 
From quite unsuspected sources such imagery may 
arise ; a picture may have been seen that really had, 
or was said to have, special relationship to stealing. 



206 HONESTY 

Numerous examples could be given at length 
showing the manifold possibilities, and also showing 
the necessity for having a peculiar type of personal- 
ity involved, or for having the pictures first sttn 
under conditions when they particularly struck in, 
but the following must suffice. One little boy soon 
after his coming to this country from an exceedingly 
simple rural life abroad, saw several pictures in a 
newspaper, representing the entrance of a thief into 
a house and his stealing there. It was not long 
thereafter that this boy himself began entering 
houses as a sneak-thief. There is no reason to be- 
lieve he had received instructions in this, and he had 
led an absolutely honest life before coming to this 
country. His ignorant parents were at a loss to ex- 
plain his newly developed tendencies. When we 
saw him it was no less than a psychological treat to 
have this simple-minded boy explain to us in his 
broken English the genesis of his impulsions. It 
seemed to be the half -lighted entrance to some 
house, or an open door, which, when he was passing 
by it, brought instantly to mind the picture of the 
operations of the thief, a picture that he had mar- 
veled at because he had never seen the like of it be- 
fore. We found that this boy had remarkably good 
visual reproducing powers, and that in all probabil- 
ity he had told us the exact truth. There was no 
reason to disbelieve his statements of origin. He 
gave a very detailed account of the doings of the 
thief depicted in the paper, and gave us a clear idea 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 207 

of how the unprotected appearance of a house sug- 
gested and started the imagery, the ideas and the 
impulsion. 

Good Pictures Possibly Counteractive. — We 
have felt that much could be done for specially good 
visualizers who are afflicted by pernicious imagery by 
introducing to their attention better interests and 
beautiful types of pictures. It is quite within the 
limits of possibility that such pictures as influence 
others for the good may be of value in these cases. 
Certainly in the instance of our simple-minded boy, 
for him to have had presented to his attention, so 
early in his experience here, those criminalistic news- 
paper illustrations, could be reckoned as an unfair 
procedure disastrous in his case, he being an impres- 
sionable visualizer. Cases so marked as this are 
rare, no doubt, but they serve to show some of the 
paths toward education, or re-education, that may 
alter delinquent tendencies. 

Nature of Obsessions. — At the present point 
in our discussion we are led to introduce more spe- 
cifically the subject of obsessions as producers of de- 
linquency. The obsession is to be regarded as the 
mental idea or imagery that persists as mental con- 
tent quite apart from the willing of the individual. 
The phenomenon is of much longer duration than the 
impulsion. Sometimes it may be considered simply as 
a prolonged impulsion. In olden times the mental ob- 
session was conceived to be the besieging of the indi- 
vidual by evil spirits — even nowadays children 



208 HONESTY 

vexed in this way will say they have something in 
their minds that they can not get away from. 
Their thoughts are besieged, as it were, by ideas 
that they do not consciously desire and perhaps that 
they struggle to get away from. 

Instances of Obsessions About Stealing. — We 
have known of some of the most curious instances 
of this kind, even when the individual is otherwise 
mentally quite normal. One boy had developed, in a 
way we were never able to learn, obsessive imagery 
centered about the idea of robbing cash drawers in 
shops. He managed to succeed in ''till-tapping," as 
the police call it, several times. Even before his 
success, however, the idea of this form of stealing 
was constantly with him. He thought about it when 
he walked along the business streets on his way to 
school, he dwelled on it at night. We know another 
boy who, during a casual acquaintance with a young 
man who proved to be an embezzler, was told about 
the possibilities of pilfering mail boxes. The lad 
for long was overwhelmed by this idea and made 
many attempts at getting booty from public and pri- 
vate mail boxes. As he said to us, he couldn't get 
the idea out of his head. It was two or three years 
before he got straightened out on this point. In the 
meanwhile he lived entirely away from the city, ex- 
cept for a short period at home when his conduct 
suffered a relapse. 

Relation of Desires to Obsessions. — We find 
that obsessions can not be fairly discussed without 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 209 

considering the influence thereupon of actual de- 
sires. To be concrete we may cite the case of a boy 
who stated that when a desire took possession of 
him he thought and thought of it until he found 
some way to get satisfaction. For instance, if he 
wanted some particular object he kept his mind on 
this until he got it. The lad spoke as if all this were 
done quite voluntarily ; as if he had a will that would 
brook no interference. On analysis the phenom- 
enon, however, seemed more like an obsession, as if 
the boy's desires were overwhelming, not only in 
their intensity, but in their power to provoke obses- 
sive imagery and persistent chains of thought. 
Here, as in the type discussed just previously, it may 
readily be seen that there is almost no hope for the 
situation unless a rational shunting-off process is 
invoked. The ideas are there, the forces are there, 
and direct opposition from inside accomplishes 
nothing; new interests that will swerve attention 
and desires are the therapeutic measures to be 
sought. The problem involves highly individualized 
considerations and is only to be solved by careful 
study of individual peculiarities and needs. 

Girl's Impulses to Take Finery, — So far we 
have said very little about the impulsive stealing of 
girls that has to do with the taking of objects of 
dress adornment. The suggestion of the desirability 
of such personal possessions comes to the girl in 
many ways — even nowadays in moving pictures 
where exhibitions of finery are made. In the little 



210 HONESTY 

dress rivalries of school life, particularly in high 
school, in the attention at the party bestowed on 
the attractively gowned girl, or the one with pretty 
jewelry, a situation is created that is thoroughly un- 
derstandable in its possible relationship to impulse. 
Hence come the borrowings of coats and hats and 
necklaces; hence arise the almost comical stealings 
from a comrade of a fancy sweater or a pretty pin. 
The impulse is, without premeditation, directly 
aroused by the object. Strange examples, such as we 
have seen, will no doubt be remembered by many an 
experienced teacher. The girl who took from the 
dressing-room the handsome sweater, the color of 
which she thought much better suited to her than to 
the owner, and who left it at a friend's house where 
she went in the mornings to get it to wear to school, 
has her counterpart in many another such trivial 
affair. I am not sure that this topic of impulsive 
stealing of girls in relation to dress and adornment 
could not best be discussed under the phenomenon 
of adolescence — we have already mentioned it in 
the chapter on Companionship. Certainly nearly all 
girls who have done such things outgrow the tend- 
ency, but while it lasts it must be reckoned rightly 
as stealing based on q, rather natural impulse and 
not having nearly the significance for society that 
many other forms of stealing have. 

Shop Displays Causing Impulse to Steal. — 
Somewhat more serious, although here again not 
nearly so important as the stealing by boys, such as 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 211 

we have mentioned above, is the taking of articles 
from stores by girls, and sometimes by boys, under 
the covetous impulse that exhibition of articles of 
interest to children is bound to create. From the 
thousands of examples that anybody well conver- 
sant with city delinquents could cite, one can only 
conclude there is nothing very peculiar in this situa- 
tion, and that such petty delinquency is bound to oc- 
cur occasionally as long as such opportunities are 
ofifered to young folk. The way of prevention is 
clear. Children should not be allowed to visit these 
stores unaccompanied, particularly little groups of 
boys and girls should not be allowed to enter. Even 
going in for an honest purpose, it is not long before 
their asides to one another may include suggestion 
of little stealing. The impulse and suggestion de- 
rived from display is as clear a cause of delinquency 
as anything one could find. 

Necessity for Study of Impulsions. — Methods 
of treatment bearing on the entire subject of im- 
pulsions and obsessions call for some discussion, but 
it is plain that we can not enter into such details as 
might be desired by professional people who handle 
cases that verge toward the pathological. How- 
ever, a number of considerations do clearly concern 
us here. The length of time necessary for the proper 
study of the individual case varies greatly, accord- 
ing to the two points we have mentioned in the pre- 
ceding chapter, namely, age and attitude. There are 
individual variations at the same ages, of course, 



212 HONESTY 

and many differences in attitude. The prime desid- 
eratum is complete frankness with a friendly and 
self-respecting child who desires to better himself. 
We are quite willing to state that we have seen some 
cases that for a long time baffled us. Very re- 
markable w'as the instance of a little girl :who was 
given to impulsive stealing of the most exaggerated 
kind and who never gave us her confidence until she 
had started behaving better. This child directly de- 
nied the phases of her experience that we thought 
might be at the root of her trouble, until a year and 
a half after our original study of her, when she ap- 
peared on the scene and voluntarily desired to tell us 
of the inception of her tendencies in some early 
secret experiences. It was apparently only her own 
desire to be honest with herself that led her to come; 
there was no urging on the part of any one and 
we had not seen her for months. Much of the strug- 
gle this child's family went through in the endeavor 
to improve her conduct would have been quite un- 
necessary had the real facts of the case been dis- 
cerned earlier. But in the light of our failure, of 
course we could not blame the parents, who them- 
selves had made many simple inquiries previously 
and after negative responses had concluded, as many 
people do, that the child's tendencies jvere innate, 
perhaps inherited. 

The general method of treatment, as we have all 
along insisted, is based on getting at the beginnings. 
The inquiry must proceed along lines that are open 



IMPULSIONS AND OBSESSIONS 213 

to as much corroboration as possible. This is not 
so difficult with a child because environmental expe- 
riences that can be learned about are often in- 
volved. The laws of mental association and the 
forces of mental habit we have already dwelled on 
in this connection ; they may well form the starting- 
point for the professional inquirer and open the way 
to the shortest route of investigation. 

Importance of Attitude of Parents Toward 
Treatment. — Perhaps the main trouble in getting 
treatment adequately carried out, the treatment 
that is directly aimed at the sources of the delin- 
quency, is in getting parents and others in control to 
understand anything of the psychology involved. 
There are phases of mental life of which they have 
never even dreamed, and the conservatism of years 
leads them to be comparatively uneducable in this 
matter. (We may entirely omit discussion of igno- 
rant parents, who unfortunately are found very 
often at the head of the delinquent's family, and the 
parents who wilfully take obstinate points of view, 
insisting on discipline, and that alone, with which to 
combat the child's delinquency.) It is not altogether 
a matter of prior education on the part of parents, 
for we have found some, naturally sympathetic, 
who, w^hile deficient in any knowledge of psychol- 
ogy, grasp the points and through their appreciative 
attitude proceed to follow the suggestions made, or 
to develop new possibilities as they arise, thereby 
establishing a cure for the delinquency in question. 



214 HONESTY 

Treatment After the Cause Is Discovered. — 

All the way through, it is not only the first study by 
your diagnostician, a professional or a lay person, 
that wins the day, but there is necessary also the 
meeting of new situations as they arise, and particu- 
larly the fitting of environmental conditions to needs 
of given individuals in ways that the outside ob- 
server can not even outline. The original source in 
experience and perhaps the mental association 
chains of the delinquent impulse having been discov- 
ered, other things have to be dealt with. There is 
mental habit, for instance; it may be necessary to 
develop methods of overcoming the bad derived 
from this. And then there is the necessity for filling 
the mind with new material, with new compelling 
interests that may win the day against the old unde- 
sirable impulsions. It is useless here to consider the 
details of this; every case has needs and possibilities 
that belong to that individual alone. 



THE END 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Aberrational individuals becoming delinquent, 158. 
Abnormality not necessarily involved, 11. 
Abnormal person in family, 30. 
Adolescent instability, 153 ff. 
Adolescents, chronic stealing by, 197. 
Adult point of view, weaknesses of, 2. 

Adventure: abnormal love of, 81; craving for, 83 ff.; pro- 
visions for, 85 ; stimulated by crowd, 78, 
Adventuresome gangs, 41 ff. 
Adventurous amusement, 77. 
Agatha, case of, 194. 
Age of immorality, 20, 21. 
Age, treatment according to, 21. 
Alcohol, 98. 

Alcoholism of parents, 34. 
Amusement parks, 75. 

Anti-social attitude caused by physical conditions, 116. 
Approach to problem of dishonesty, 10. 

Bad companions : 38 ; responsibility for, 60. 
Beginnings of impulsions, 166 ff. 

Cases of teaching by defectives, 136. 

Causes of misconduct, complexity of, 3. 

Celia, case of, 180. 

Chorea, 152. 

Classifications of mental defectives, 124. 

Coffee and tea, 105. 

Companionship with delinquents, 58. 

Constitutional inferiority, 149. 

Crowd : influences, methods of improving, 52 ; psychology, 80 ; 

spirit of adventure, 79; stealing, case of, 79; thieving in 

neighborhood, 49. 

Dangerous companionship, treatment of, 57. 
Defective delinquents, proportion of, 120. 
Definitions of mental defect, 123. 
Delinquencies of defectives, 134, 135. 
Delinquency of defectives, causation of, 128, 131. 
Developmental conditions, 113. 

217 



218 INDEX 

Disciplinary checks desirable, 61. 

Discipline : alone a failure, 62 ; forms of, 65, 68. 

Dress, influence of at school, 54. 

Drugs, 105. 

Early experience causing later impulsions, 170. 

Enos, case of, 190. 

Environment of defectives, 122. 

Epilepsy, 157, 158. 

Excitement of impulse to steal, 204. 

Exciting entertainment, craving for, 72. 

Exclusion from school, 115. 

Finery, impulse to take, 209. 
Friends, danger of rich, 55. 

Gang: fraternalism, age of, 40; life, a habit, 108; secrets of, 

40, 43. 
Gangs : 39 ff. ; social life of, 43 if. 
Golf club dangers, 55. 

Habit : formation, 90, 201 ; James on, 88 ; mechanisms of, 89. 
Habits : of gangs, 51 ; secret, of gangs, 46. 
Habitual ideation, case of, 92. 
Habitual mental imagery, 94. 
Healthy interests, 34. 

Home: importance of, 23; interests and influences, 35, 36; 
irritations, 33. 

Impulse to steal, expression of a tendency, 200. 

Impulsions, study of, 211. 

Innate characteristics leading to impulsions, 168. 

Innate qualities vs. experiences, 18. 

Insanity in children, 147, 148. 

Intoxicating drinks, 98. 

Introspection by children, 164. 

^'Kleptomania," 197. 

Mental defect: causations of, 127; nature of, 144. 

Mental defectives, ailments of, 142. 

Mental experiences leading to delinquency, 160. 

Mental habits : 92 ; of defectives, 132. 

Mental imagery: 205 ff. ; case of, 94. 

Mental mechanisms, appreciation of, 3, 4. 

Mental processes back of misconduct, 10. 

Method of using this bpok, 12. 

Michael, case of, 30. 

Money allowance a preventive, 204. 



INDEX 219 

Moral awakening: age of, 14, 19; determinants of, 15. 
Moral defectives, are there such? 130. 
Moral tendencies among defectives, differences in, 138. 
Moving pictures : 72 ff. ; imagery from, 96. 

Nervous system affected by bad habits, 107. 
Normal crowd activities, provision for, 81. , 

Obsessions, nature of, 207 ff. 
Occupational stealing, ^, 

Parental attitude, 213. 
Parental behavior, 23, 24. 
Parental companionship, 31. 
Parental delinquencies, 25 ff. 
Parental neglect, excuses for, 32. 
Parental overconcern, 8. 
Parental unconcern, danger of, 7. 
Personal peculiarities underlying impulsions, 179. 
Physical basis for love of adventure, 82. 
Physical causes for mental dulness, 146. 
Physical conditions affecting mental, 115. 
Physical defects, 113* 
Physical habits, 97. 
Poverty, 28, 29. 
Predatory habits, 51. 

Prevention of delinquency among defectives, 140, 141, 
Prevention vs. punishment, (:^. 
Property, need of child for, 17. 
Psychological analysis, 161 ff. 
Psychological principles of impulsions, 173 ff. 
Psychological values of discipline, 64. 
Psychoneurotics, 151. 
Public entertainments, stealing for, 71. 

Punishment: deferred, a danger, 66; efficacy of, ^Z^ 64; indi- 
vidualization of, 69. 

Repression, weakness of, 5, 6. 

Reputation among school friends, 54. 

Respect for property, 16. 

Restitution, €1, 

Restlessness caused by physical conditions, 114. 

Rich companions, temptations through, 56. 

School crowds, social temptations of, 54. 
School dissatisfactions, 112. 
Schooling in delinquency, 59. 
Scientific investigation of misconduct, 5. 
Secrets of gangs, 46. 



220 INDEX 

Segregation of defectives, 143, 

Sex affairs of gangs, 47. 

Sex experiences, relation of to stealing, 177, 

Sex habits : 99 ; treatment of, 101. 

Shop displays, 210. 

Social attitude of children, 163. 

Social habits, 108. 

Social suggestibility, abnormal, 37. 

Social work with gang, 45. 

Special abilities of defectives, 133. 

Spending habits. 111. 

Statistics of family conditions, 32. 

Stealing from shops a habit, 110. 

Stealing habit, the, 97. 

St. Vitus' dance, 152. 

Sudden impulses, 202. 

Tea and coflfee, 105. 
Teaching by defectives, 13S. 
Tests for mental defectives, 126. 
Tobacco, 102 ff. 

Unaccompanied children at amusements, 76, 

Vacation schools, for prevention, 77. 

Will-power weakened by physical conditions, 117, 



The Childhood and Youth Series 

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Professor of Zoology, The University of Wisconsin; author of 
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COLONEL L. R. GIGNILLIAT 

Superintendent The Culver Military Academy, Culver, Ind. 

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C. Ao McMURRY 

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Professor of School Supervision, University of Missouri ; author of 
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JAMES T. NOE 

Professor of Education, University of Kentucky. 

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Director of the Raymond P.iordon School, on Chodikee Lake, N. Y.; 
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Professorof Art Education, University of Chicago; author of Fine 
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FRANK CHAPMAN SHARP 

Professor of Philosophy, The University of Wisconsin ; author of 
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THOMAS A. STOREY 

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NATURAL EDUCATION 
Mrs. Stoner explains the methods by which she made hef 
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make for the health, happiness and wisdom of any normal child. 

By MRS. WINIFRED SACKVILLE STONER 
DirectoivGeneral Women's International Health League 

LEARNING BY DOING 
The way to learn how to run an automobile is by running it 
Professor Swift shows how this practical principle may be ap- 
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By EDGAR JAMES SWIFT 

Professor of Psychology and Education, Washington 

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THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING 

Can your child spell ? Business and professional men think 
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authors of this book make a simple but scientific analysis of the 
whole questioue 

By WILLIAM A. COOK 

Assistant Professor of Education, University of Colorado; and 

M. V. O'SHEA 

Professor of Education, University of Wisconsin 

THE HIGH-SCHOOL AGE 
The "teen age'* is the critical age, the dangerous age of ado- 
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By IRVING KING 

Professor of Education, University of Iowa ; author of 

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THE WAYWARD CHILD 
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By MRS. FREDERIC SCHOFF 

President National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher 

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FEAR 
A comprehensive, concrete discussion of (1) psychology of fear; 
(2) varieties of fears found normally in childhood and youth; (3) 
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c^ fear in home and school. 

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President Clark University, Worcester, Mass.; author of 

Adolescence, Educational Problems, Etc. 

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THE USE OF MONEY 
How to train the young to appreciate (1) what money repre- 
resents in labor and privilege ; (2) how it may best be expended. 

By E. A. KIRKPATRICK 

Head of Department of Psychology and Child-Study, State Normal 

School, Fitchburg, Mass.; author of Fundamentals of 

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THE best-developed child in America, Winifred 
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Natural Education 

By WINIFRED SACKVILLE STONER 
Director-General Women's International Health League 

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THE "teen age" is the critical age. Boys and 
girls cause parents and teachers more anxiety 
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formative stage, the high-school age, the turning 
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The High-School Age 

By IRVING KING 

Assistant Professor of Education, University of Iowa; author of 

Psychology of Child Development, Etc. 

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ihildlKOO^ t® maturity. 

r\m KIGH-SGHOOL AGE is one of the books in the 
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CAN your child spell? Spelling takes more at- 
tention in the home than almost any other 
subject taught in the schools. The drills and prac- 
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operation. 

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be presented to meet individual differences on the part of pupils 

William A. Cook, Assistant Professor of Education in 
the University of Colorado, and M. V. O'Shea, Professor of 
Education in the University of Wisconsin, have conducted 
a series of investigations extending over a considerable 
period, witb a view to contributing to the solution of the 
various problems connected with the teaching of spelling. 

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large number of pupils in a rather general way was carried on. 
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spelling vocabulary. 

The Child and His Spelling 

By WILLIAM A, COOK and M. V. O^SHEA 

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A HUNDRED thousand American mothers 
venerate the name of Mrs. Frederic Schoff 
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The Wayward Child 

By HANNAH KENT SCHOFF 

President National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations; 

President Philadelphia Juvenile Court and Probation Association 

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IF YOUR CHILD grows up to be a spendthrift 
blame yourself. It is the fault of the training 
received in childhood, or the lack of it. 

But parents are hard pressed for ways and means 
of teaching their children how to use money — 
how to save it, and how to spend it. 

Should a child have a regular allowance? Should he be given 
money when he asks for it or only when he really needs it? 
Should he be given money as a reward or as a payment for 
services? Should he be allowed to work for money at an early 
age? 

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The Use of Money 

By E. A. KIRKPATRICK 

State Normal School, Fitchburg, Mass.; author of Fundamentals of 
Child study, The Individual in the Making, etc, 

It ofifers sound advice, which any parent will be fortunate to 
obtain. It tells when the child should begin to learn the real 
value of money and how to dispose of it properly, and suggests 
methods by which this training may be given. It clears the 
mind of all doubt as to how to induce thrift in the child, so that 
in later life he will be better equipped, not only for business, 
but in the conduct of the household and private affairs. 

THE USE OF MONEY, like all the other books in the 
famous Childhood and Youth Series, is designed to be of 
immediate, practical benefit to the average parent, guard- 
ian or teacher. 

12mo, Cloth, One Dollar Net 

The Bobbs-Merrill Company 

Publishers, Indianapolis 



THE civilized world is awakening to the rights 
of the child, and to the fact that its right of 
rights is the right to be well-born. Heredity is 
recognized as a factor of supreme importance in 
determining the child's nature; yet there is no 
subject on which there is such general ignorance 
and so much superstition. 

What is "prenatal influence," and what are its limitations? 
What traits and habits may be transmitted ? How far does the 
parent's body and brain and character affect the child's heritage 
at birth, and how far the more remote ancestor's ? Do degen- 
erate parents beget degenerate children? To what extent are 
physical and mental defects due to inheritance and not to en- 
vironment or training ? 

On these and similar questions there is the widest 
difference of opinion and belief, and the grossest error, 
among intelligent people who are not familiar with the 
latest results of scientific study. 

Professor Guyer, of the University of Wisconsin, who has 
studied the whole problem of heredity in a thoroughgoing way, 
has prepared a book to take away the mystery and misunder- 
standing, and to enlighten parents, teachers and social workers 
on an all-important subject. He calls it 

Being Well- Born 

By MICHAEL F. GUYER 

Professor of Zoology in the University of Wisconsin, 
Author of Animal Micrologj', etc. 

His work includes an account of the new science of Eugenics 
which is striving for the betterment of the race, the conservation 
of good stock and the repression of bad. 

This concrete, practical book on Heredity and Eugenics 
naturally falls in THE CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 
SERIES, which undertakes to treat child-nature from 
every viewpoint, and which is the most complete, scien- 
tific and satisfactory collection of books on child-problems 
now published. 

12mo, Cloth, One Dollar Net 

The Bobbs-Merrill Company 

Publishers, Indianapolis 



WHEN is a child backward? May he be 
backward in some ways and forward in 
others? Are children backward by birth, or made 
so by neglect or faults of training ? What are the 
signs of backwardness ? Is there any way of de- 
termining whether a child is permanently back- 
ward? When and how may backwardness be 
cured ? 

These questions and others like them are of supreme impor- 
tance to-day to teachers and parents. People are seeking light 
from every source upon the problems of the backward child. 

Dr. Holmes, Dean of the Pennsylvania State College, has 
studied backward children in the clinic and laboratory as 
well as in the home and school, and he is recognized as a 
first authority in America on arrested development. 

Out of a fund of scientific knowledge he has written his book 
in simple, sympathetic and popular style to help those who are 
striving to help slow boys and girls and reclaim the mentally 
arrested. He tells the parent and the teacher what they need to 
know in language they can understand. 

Backward Children 

By ARTHUR HOLMES 
Author of The Conservation of the Child, etc. 

Dean Holmes treats concrete cases of backwardness in detail 
and pictures vividly the various types. Everything he says is 
definite, practical, helpful. 

THE CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH SERIES, in which 
BACKWARD CHILDREN is issued, is a collection of books 
by recognized authorities on the development and train- 
ing of children, under the general editorship of M. V. 
O'Shea, of the University of Wisconsin. 

12mo, Cloth, One Dollar Net 

The Bobbs-Merrill Company 

Publishers, Indianapolis 



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